By Lian Cheng
KUCHING, May 27: Sarawak Metro Sdn Bhd has finalised its tender for rolling stock (hydrogen-powered Autonomous Rapid Transit or ART vehicles), where an announcement will be made soon.
According to its chairman Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Husain, it is also Sarawak Metro’s plan to tender out other parts of the project, especially the infrastructure works this year.
“We have finalised tender for rolling stock, so that should be out soon. We should be able to announce which company is to come out with the rolling stock for the project.
“And hopefully, I will be able to tender out the tenders, especially for infrastructure works, sometime this year because we will start infrastructure works next year,” Abdul Aziz told the media at Sarawak Metro’s Berembah Raya Gawai held at a local hotel here yesterday.
He said the rolling stock should be here by 2023, after which pilots will be engaged, and a test run will commerce for two years before these vehicles are allowed to be officially operational.
“So the commercial operation will start by 2025 after everything has been finalised,” said Abdul Aziz when asked by the media to update the development of the ART project.
On April 6, Sarawak Metro issued a statement announcing that it received two bids for the Kuching Urban Transportation System (KUTS) Project’s System Package 1 tender.
The KUTS Project’s System Package 1 tender is for the supply of rolling stock (hydrogen-powered ART vehicles), depot equipment and maintenance vehicles (DEMV), signalling and control system (S&CS), and automatic platform gate (APG).
One of the bids is from CRRC (Hong Kong) Co Limited, CHEC Construction (M) Sdn Bhd, and KACC Construction Sdn Bhd, a joint venture company, while the other bid is from the joint venture company comprising EPR (Kuching) Sdn Bhd, Global Rail Sdn Bhd, and Mobilus Sdn Bhd.
Sarawak Metro, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Sarawak Economic Development Corporation (SEDC), advertised for rolling stock vendors in international and national publications in mid-2021.
In the same press release, Sarawak Metro announced that it would call for tenders for System Package 2 of the KUTS Project (Phase 1) in the second quarter of 2022.
This package includes the communication system (COMMS), automatic fare collection system (AFC), information technology system (ITS), supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA), computerised maintenance management system (CMMS), and the operation control centre (OCC).
The KUTS Project will be developed in phases, with Phase 1 involving the development of two lines: the Samarahan Line (28km) from Rembus to the city centre and the Serian Line (24km) from the 12th Mile Kuching-Serian Expressway to the Isthmus. — DayakDaily
