25 February 2002 (Business Times) - CONSTRUCTION-BASED IJM Corp Bhd iseyeing a bigger portion of the proposed RM12 billion double-trackingproject linking Padang Besar in Perlis to Johor Baru, Johor.Sources said IJM is currently in talks with the main contractor of theproject, India-based Ircon International Ltd to secure part of the civilworks of the project said to be worth at about RM100 million.“IJM does not discount the possibility of securing more civil works alongthe entire stretch in the future,” the source told Business Times in KualaLumpur yesterday.“Even though, IJM is not the main local partner of the project, it doesnot mean that IJM cannot go out there to secure additional deals,” saidthe source.Malaysia had in May last year endorsed the participation of both India andChina in the double-tracking project which comes under the RM12 billioncounter-trade programme to promote demand for palm oil.The counter-trade will see the delivery of around 8 million tonnes of palmoil over a period of between five and six years to each country.The proposed project is divided into the northern portion linking Ipoh toPadang Besar over a distance of 338.8km valued at RM6 billion.The southern portion links Seremban to Johor Baru over a distance of 297kmalso valued at RM6 billion.Under the proposal, Ircon will undertake double tracking andelectrification of the northern portion while China Railway EngineeringCorp will undertake the southern portion.DRB HICOM Bhd, Emrail Sdn Bhd and Kien Huat Group have been identified aslocal partners to carry out various civil works at the southern gridvalued at RM4.2 billion.Mitsui Consortium was given a contract to implement the power generation,electrification and signalling systems for both portions of the tracks.The project is also part of the Peninsula’s rail network which will formpart of the Trans-Asia railway that links Singapore with Kunming in China.Double-tracking refers to the construction of a new railway track parallelto the existing railway line enabling two trains in opposite directions totravel at a time.The current single railway track hampers the journey of a south-boundtrain which has to wait for a north-bound train to pass before being ableto continue its journey.Ircon and the Government has signed a memorandum of understanding in Maylast year during Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s state visitto Malaysia.State-owned construction and engineering firm Ircon was supposed to sign aformal agreement with the Government by end of last year, paving the wayfor construction works to begin this year.But to date, no word has been heard on when construction which is expectedto start although Ircon has carried out preliminary works.Industry observers have said that the delay was caused by the complexpaying mechanism in the purchasing of palm oil due to the fluctuatingnature of the commodity’s prices in the market.Ircon’s managing director B.S. Kapur could not be contacted last Friday ashe was away at a project site in southern India.IJM’s involvement in double-tracking civil works is not new.The company has in the past carried out numerous civil works which includeKuala Lumpur’s Light Rail Transit system.Other’s include civil works for KTM Bhd mainly in Selangor and thedouble-tracking project at the Port of Tanjung Pelepas in Johor.Currently, IJM is also a party of the on-going RM2.5 billion electrifieddouble tracking project linking Rawang in Selangor and Ipoh, Perak whichis expected to be completed by July next year.The electrified project is also headed by DRB HICOM Bhd, with foursub-contractors which are IJM (building), Perspec Prime (mainline), EmrailSdn Bhd (yard and track) and UE Construction (bridge).IJM has businesses in construction, plantations, manufacturing andquarrying and international ventures.IJM is now a construction supermarket specialising in infrastructure andbuilding works ranging from piling and foundation, highways, roads andbridges, power, oil and gas.Other works include water supply, marine works, hospitals and medicalcentres, condominiums, hotels, resorts and clubs, residential, commercialand industrial complexes to preservation and refurbishment works.These works are complemented by industrial building systems, steelfabrication and the production and supply of building materials and rockproducts.Meanwhile, at the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange, IJM shares closed 8 senlower last Friday at RM4.32 with 1.283 million shares traded.