Company awarded monorail test track project

As reported in The Star on 1 December 2009

THE Penang Government has given the green light to MRails Sdn Bhd to develop one of two monorail test tracks in South Seberang Prai while the other has yet to be awarded.

Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said there were currently two sites available but more may be opened if the state received more proposals.

“We have got more than two proposals and others have shown interest, but there has been nothing in black and white.

“If there are more (proposals), we can look for alternative sites but once they build, it is at their own cost and it belongs to the state government,” Guan Eng told reporters during the sitting’s break.

He added that the state currently was in “serious discussions” with an unnamed company to develop the second site.

Earlier, Opposition Leader Datuk Azhar Ibrahim (BN - Penaga) had asked the state government to clear up speculation on the two monorail test sites.

Answering on behalf of Guan Eng, state Public Works, Utilities and Transportation Committee chairman Lim Hock Seng said the sites were merely test sites so no open tender had been called and the cost of the projects had yet to be determined.

Azhar then pressed Hock Seng on whether or not the state would call for an open tender should the test sites yield positive results.

To this, Hock Seng said an open tender would be called if any further action was planned and the test tracks proved sui-table.