Hopeful for amicable solution in MRT2 underground construction
I HAVE been in the construction line since I graduated from university and started my career in tunnelling. Hence, the ongoing wrangle between MMCGamuda and the Finance Ministry has caught my attention. I was among a few Malaysians who were fortunate enough to be involved in the final stages of building the Channel Tunnel during our stint in London. We thought we were lucky to be involved in tunnel design as it was a very specialised field and there were not many tunnels being built in Malaysia at that time.
As our nation progressed from the 1980s till now, we have seen tunnels being built using boring machines for the Stormwater Management And Road Tunnel (SMART Tunnel), MRT, Sprint Highway and Rasa Water Treatment Plant mainly by one company – Gamuda.
It was a wonderful experience for transfer of technology to Malaysian engineers and today, we can claim to be a world leader in tunnelling technology in underground confined spaces.
The current situation has to be looked at as a true blue and competent Malaysian company giving job opportunities to young engineers in tunnelling to take on the world and, of course, to make some profit out of it. Which company wouldn’t?
I can see Gamuda trying to protect its home turf in a specialised field, which it does best.
On the other hand, the Finance Ministry has inherited a government with a very tight budget due to the current economic conditions, and it is doing its best to rein in all the mega construction jobs in the country to make sure they are budgeted in accordance with the nation’s affordability.
A balance has to be struck where the present government must squeeze out all the wasteful excesses and cronyism of the past while ensuring that Malaysian companies and workers are not denied a chance to work on this prestigious job, namely building the underground portion of the MRT2.
I truly sympathise with MMCGamuda, which has completed 40% of the tunnels. What will happen to the tunnel boring machines (TBM), which cost millions of ringgit, and the engineers and workers if the job is taken away from them and given to foreigners?
We can only hope that an amicable solution would be reached between the Finance Ministry and the contractor to mutually benefit the nation and its people.