19 February 2014
The tender process for the RM700 million new air traffic control centre will be opened by end March or early April, said Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) director general Datuk Azharuddin Abdul Rahman.
He said bidders for the project will have about two months to submit their tender proposals after which the DCA will take another two months to evaluate the proposals.
"Hopefully by September or October we will start the groundbreaking works," he told reporters at the MIDF Luncheon Talk where he made a presentation on ‘Malaysia’s New Air Traffic Management System’.
He said the centre will be located on 15 acres of land at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) in Sepang and will take three-and-a-half years to complete.
"We’re doing soil investigations at the moment and we’re finalising our tender specifications," he said.
Azharuddin said RM700 million is the total cost of the project including construction of the centre and a new air traffic management system which will be installed but declined to reveal the breakdown of the costs.
The DCA has not decided whether the bidding process for the construction of the centre and new air traffic management system will be in one tender or separate tenders.
"Singapore just got a system from France, Bangkok’s system is also from France. Hong Kong’s system is from the US. There are about four to five players in the world (offering air traffic management systems)," he said.
Azharuddin said that the actual cost of the project could be less than the RM700 million announced by the Prime Minister, after going through a value management process.
"We have done value management which is a requirement of the government. Any project that is above RM50 million has to go through value management so that what you spend is approximately what you will get," he added.
Azharuddin said the new air traffic control centre will replace the current centre at the Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah airport in Subang, which will remain as an airport.
"Right now, three airlines are operating out of the airport namely Berjaya Air, Firefly and Malindo Air. If you go to Skypark in the morning, it’s very congested so there are plans to expand the airport and to increase the apron area of the airport. We have already received application from airlines from our neighbouring countries like Indonesia and Thailand to fly to Skypark terminal," he said.
He said there are proposals to expand the terminal building and the apron area which could potentially increase the amount of aircraft that can be parked there by more than double.
Source: www.thesundaily.my
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