KUALA LUMPUR: The tender for the 197-kilometre Gemas-Johor Baharu electrified double tracking project (EDTP) would be done before year-end,Transport Minister Datuk Seri Kong Cho Ha said yesterday.
The stretch was already in the final stage of design, he said, but declined to state if the tender would be open to foreign parties.
“The Ipoh-Padang Besar and Seremban-Gemas lines are 70 and 90 per cent complete respectively,” he added, after officiating a forum on ‘Powering the Rails in Malaysia’ here.
The Gemas-Johor Baharu sector would be the final package for the EDTP.
It was previously stated that the Gemas-Johor Baharu line was worth RM7 billion because it did not only comprise the building of a double-tracking system but also a transport hub with a capacity to rival the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) in Singapore.
Kong said the rail sector was poised to emerge as a catalyst in the rapidly changing landscape of Malaysia’s public transportation system once all the projects would come to a conclusion.
He said the EDTP in the northern section was slated for completion by end-2013 and the line to Johor by 2016.
Asked if the Komuter Service would be extended from Batu Caves to Selayang, he said the government would be considering the possibility.
“There has been a request from the public for the extension.
“At the moment we are still looking at the possibility.
“There will be a long term need for it and the extension is seen as the most viable,” he added. — Bernama