Lee at the press conference. To his right is his ministry’s permanent secretary Dato Alice Jawan Empaling. – Photo by Roystein Emmor
KUCHING (March 20): The Proof-of-Concept (POC) exercise for Sarawak’s hydrogen-powered Autonomous Rapid Transit (ART) is expected to be carried out in the state by the third quarter of this year, said Dato Sri Lee Kim Shin.
The Transport Minister said the first stage of the POC exercise was recently completed in Zhuzhou, China on March 15.
“They (CRRC Zhuzhou Institute, the manufacturer of the ART vehicle) will ship the (prototype) vehicle to Sarawak.
“Hopefully by July or the third quarter of this year, we can have the POC done here in Sarawak,” he told a press conference after chairing a briefing on ships survey and proposal to Sarawak by Ships Classification Malaysia here today.
Lee said he along with a technical team from his ministry as well as representatives from Sarawak Metro Sdn Bhd, Sarawak Economic Development Corporation (SEDC) and the Public Works Department (JKR) visited the ART manufacturer in Zhuzhou earlier this month.
“The hydrogen-powered ART vehicle is already ready. We had a test drive in China and rode on the vehicle for an hour.
“It is running very well but we want to improve on the POC,” he said.