George Kent-led consortium tipped to win Ampang LRT job (3204)

KUALA LUMPUR: A consortium led by George Kent
Bhd is now tipped to win the systems contract worth RM960 million for
the Ampang light rail transit (LRT) line extension project.



Sources with knowledge on the matter said the winning bidder for the
job is expected to be announced by the government within the next few
days.


Other members of the George Kent consortium include China Railway
Construction Corp and Tewet GmbH, a project management consultant firm.


George Kent was established in 1936 and is a leader in mechanical
and electrical engineering. For fiscal 2011, George Kent posted a
pre-tax profit of RM26.2 million on revenue of RM152.3 million.


Tenders for the systems contract for the Ampang line extension closed on June 16 2011. Eight groups had made the bids.






Business Times first reported that George Kent may win the job in

July last year.


It was speculated early this year that the Posco-Sojitz-Daewoo

International-Thales group was also one of front-runners to win the contract.


However, the Invensys-Balfour Beatty Rail-Ingress consortium later
emerged as the odds-on favourite to win the systems contract. The
contract was supposed to be awarded last month.


But Syarikat Prasarana Negara Bhd issued letters to the bidders,
asking them to extend the validity of their bid to July 27, to give it
more time to evaluate the proposals.


The other bidders are Colas-CMC Engineering-Thales, Samsung-LG-Thales, SNC Lavalin-WW Engineering-Bombardier, Siemens-Scomi

Engineering and Ansaldo-Emrail-Leighton.


“After a detailed study on all the proposals, a decision has been
made on the best candidate, said a source with knowledge of the matter.


Prasarana, a wholly-owned government company established by the
Finance Ministry, had budgeted RM1.5 billion for the system works.


The budgeting was done by UK consultant Halcrow/HSSI.