DOM JV wins Kuching urban transportation job

KUCHING: A joint venture between DOM Industries (M) Sdn Bhd and China Railway Electric Engineering Group Malaysia Sdn Bhd has been awarded a Rm448mil contract for system package two of the Kuching Urban Transportation System (KUTS) project under phase one.

The bid was among the 10 tender submissions received by Sarawak Merro Sdn Bhd at the close of the tender exercise on July 18, 2022.

The contract involved the design, engineering, procurement, delivery, installation, testing and commissioning as well as the handing over of various systems.

The systems include telecommunication, supervisory control and data acquisition, automatic fare collection, computerised maintenance management system, operation control centre and information technology system, Sarawak Metro said in a statement on Saturday.

Sarawak Metro,a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sarawak Economic Development Corp ,has been entrusted by the Sarawak government to implement the KUTS project.

The ambitious project will be implemented in phases, with phase one for the development of the blue line, red line and green line.

The blue line is from Rembus in Kota Samarahan to Hikmah Exchange in the city centre, covering 27.6km while the red line is from Kuching Central to Pending, covering 12.3km.

The green line ,with a distance of 30km, is from Pending to Damai Central in Santubong – a popular tourist spot.

Sarawak Metro has earlier awarded the Rm1.425bil contract for system package one for the KUTS Project-phase one to a joint venture company comprising EPR (Kuching) Sdn Bhd, Global Rail Sdn Bhd and Mobilus Sdn Bhd.

The contract is for the supply of the rolling stock, which is the hydrogen-powered

Autonomous Rapid Transit (ART) vehicles, depot equipment and maintenance vehicles, signalling and control system and the automatic platform gate.

“The backbone of the KUTS project is the introduction of the Autonomous Rapid Transit vehicles which are all powered by hydrogen fuel cells.

“The ART will be supported by a network of feeder buses,which will provide the first-mile and last-mile connectivity for the KUTS. The feeder buses will also be powered by hydrogen fuel cells.

“Passenger service for the ART is scheduled to be introduced in stages,starting from the fourth quarter of 2025,” said Sarawak Metro.

According to the Environmental Impact Assessment on KUTS, a three-car Art,which is what KUTS is deploying, is able to accommodate about 300 passengers.

The development of KUTS project is seen as a “game changer” to improve mobility in Greater Kuching and to alleviate the traffic congestion.