26 May 2021
There is no necessity for airport operator Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) to reopen its aerotrain tender as it will only create injustice to the existing bidders and a waste of time to prolong the process, a consultant said.
Aviation principal consultant Jaafar Zamhari said any amendments to the tendering process are not something abnormal and even the bidders were informed after the closing date.
He said every participating company should be flexible, propose comprehensive solutions, and demonstrate added values with varieties and options for the project owner to select.
“It has been the norm in any big and complex tender, whereby sometimes clarification is needed to be made to ensure all bidders get a detailed explanation relating to the tender.
“What’s important is to ensure that all bidders receive a fair level of information and are given sufficient time to submit their feedback,” he told Bernama when contacted Tuesday.
Jaafar was commenting on MAHB’s tender to design, supply, installation, testing and commissioning of the automated people mover (APM) and associated works at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) that has caused some unhappiness among the bidders due to its last-minute adjustments.
He said, under normal circumstances, bidders are given a special space and channel to submit any further queries, if necessary.
He is confident that the airport operator would evaluate the proposals from all bidders based on their operational needs.
“Of course, there will be more than one solution available in the market. What is more important is to ensure that the solution is suitable for implementation to ensure that the operational efficiency of the airport is at an optimum level.
“We also need to remember that the wrong selection of systems and technologies for the airport can result in huge losses if (they are) not planned carefully because the wrongly selected systems and technologies may no longer be relevant in the future,” he said.
Meanwhile, in response to a Bernama enquiry, MAHB said the amendments were made to enable participating bidders to have the flexibility to propose any solution that meets the functionalities criteria.
It said in general, any amendment issued during a tender is to clear any confusion or doubt that might arise in the tenderer’s requirements in compliance with the tender policies and procedures.
For the APM tender, it said the amendments had the objective to ensure that participating tenderers were given every opportunity to offer a comprehensive proposal that meets the criteria of MAHB’s requirements.
“All participating bidders were equally informed on the amendments and were given sufficient time to respond in accordance to our standard policies and procedures. There is no cause for a re-tender,” it added.
According to a report by a business weekly, the tender was closed on November 2 last year, however, MAHB had in March informed bidders that it made amendments, specifically asking for bids with cable-propelled system (CPS) as opposed to self-propelled (SPS) and other accepted systems.
The current aerotrain at KLIA uses the SPS technology.
Source: edgeprop.my
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