Nova MSC unit bags RM4.65m Singapore government contract

KUALA LUMPUR: Nova MSC Bhd’s wholly-owned subsidiary, novaCITYNETS Pte Ltd (NCN), has bagged a RM4.65 million contract from the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Singapore to implement and provide maintenance support for an intelligent code checking system (ICCS).

The contract involves the adoption of Nova MSC’s cutting-edge Fornax ePlanCheck system.

This is Nova MSC’s second government contract in Singapore after the RM15.4 million contract awarded by the Public Utilities Board in June.

Fornax is a module driven by artifi- cial intelligence to automate the checking process of 3D building information modelling building plans and compute the gross floor area (GFA) based on a GFA handbook.

With Fornax, the ICCS will be able to help cut down the process of manual GFA calculation to just hours compared to several weeks previously.

NCN chief executive officer Raymond Tan Yew Soon said since 2002, the group had been investing in the state-of-the-art system.

He said apart from achieving cost-savings, Fornax would also enhance productivity.

“Our collaboration with another government agency in Singapore is a testament to Fornax, where we aim to establish ourselves as a solution provider that will complement not only the authorities but also private corporations,” he said in a statement.

The company said building permit fees constituted 0.5 to one per cent of the construction value, and plan-check fee represented nearly 75 per cent of the building permit fee.

“There is a huge global market potential to us, as Fornax is the first-of-its-kind in the world to offer such solutions, not only to the government, but also to the private sector,” said Tan.

Our collaboration with another government agency in Singapore is a testament to Fornax... RAYMOND TAN YEW SOON

novaCITYNETS Pte Ltd chief executive officer