Group wins main package of dam project
Group wins main package of dam project
KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): A multinational group has clinched the 15- billion-ringgit (US$6-billion) contract for the main package of the giant Bakun dam project in Malaysia's eastern state of Sarawak, a news report said Saturday.
The group comprises 120 companies from Brazil, France, Italy, Japan, Germany, Malaysia, Mexico, South Korea and Sweden, according to Ekran Bhd., the main contractor for the dam.
The main package involves building a 205-meter (222-feet) high main dam across the Balui River to generate 2,400 megawatts of electricity for Malaysia by 2002.
"These companies are the best in the hydro-power construction and management industry," Ekran executive chairman Ting Pek Khiing was quoted as saying by The Star. The name of the group will be announced soon, said Ting.
"This consortium has given an assurance that it will complete the project in 60 months, a year ahead of schedule," he said. When completed, the dam will be Malaysia's biggest power plant and largest dam.
The whole project is expected to cost more than 25 billion ringgit, including the three undersea 1,300-kilometer (8,125- mile) long cables -- costing 10 billion ringgit -- linking the dam to Peninsular Malaysia.
The dam is expected to fuel the country's industrialization drive by channeling power through power giant, Tenaga Nasional Bhd., which has a monopoly on electricity supply here.
The power sold to Tenaga would be worth about 2.5 billion ringgit per year, according to Ting.
"We will have a concession for 30 years and about 75 billion ringgit worth of electricity from Bakun will be supplied to the national grid owned by Tenaga," he said.
However, energy price purchase talks, which started last July, have stalled, according to Tenaga. Tenaga has sought the government's intervention in the talks.
Ekran has said it will not budge from its asking price of 18.5 sen (7.4 cents) per kilowatt hour, a price Tenaga considers too high.
Ekran's Ting, meanwhile, announced Friday between 100 million ringgit and 120 million ringgit will be paid out to compensate the 9,500 natives to be displaced by the dam project.