Penang will get getting its very own Light Rail Transit (LRT) line in Bayan Lepas if the federal government approves the project, says Penang State Infrastructure and Transport Committee chairman Zairil Khir Johari.
According to Bernama, Zairil said that the construction is expected to begin as early as the fourth quarter of 2023 after the approval of the last segment of the LRT line involving the location of the LRT depot on the reclaimed Penang South Islands is obtained.
Meanwhile, Zairil said the ministry has received responses from 45 companies for the pre-qualification registration exercise for the LRT project conducted from 25 July to 19 August this year.
The tender process
Elaborating further, Zairil said the pre-qualification exercise was to identify and pre-qualify suitable contractors to participate in the request for proposal (RFP) tender process for the engineering, procurement, construction, testing and commissioning of the LRT’s viaducts, stations, depot, system, and other associated works, as well as the funding, operation and maintenance of the LRT system.
“By the end of the submission deadline on 7 October, we received eight submissions from local and international consortiums.”
“Evaluation of the submissions is currently being carried out by the technical and financial committees,” he said.
He added that a report will then be prepared and presented to the tender committee, followed by the procurement committee.
The committees are responsible for identifying the qualified entities to be formally invited to participate in the RFP exercise, which is expected to open next year.
Following that, the qualified entities will be given four months to prepare their RFP proposals for submission.
Zairil said from there on, the evaluation process will take about three months. A report will then be prepared for the tender and procurement committees to make the final decision.
The LRT project is part of the Penang Transport Master Plan (PTMP) and the Penang State Government has long pursued the construction of the LRT in the state.
It is also the state government’s long term strategy to overcome the traffic congestion problem in the state.
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 line in Bayan Lepas if the federal government approves the project, says Penang State Infrastructure and Transport Committee chairman Zairil Khir Johari.){kind=link}