INDIA's Ircon International Ltd, one of the two foreign parties in theproposed Malaysia's railway double-tracking project, has initiatedpreliminary civil works on the project.

An Ircon official said the company sees the project, initiated early thisyear, progressing well with formal agreement on it to be finalised withinthe next three months.

"Even now as we speak, Ircon's ground engineers are already conductinglight preliminary works such as surveying, geographical, geometrical andother engineering works," the official told Business Times in KualaLumpur.

Malaysia had earlier this year endorsed the participation of both Indiaand China in the double-tracking project which comes under a RM12 billioncounter-trade programme to promote demand of palm oil.

Under the programme, India and China will undertake double-tracking workswhich involve the payment for rail contracts in crude palm oil (CPO).

India's state-run engineering and construction firm Ircon Internationalwill undertake double-tracking and electrification works of the northerngrid of Peninsular Malaysia.

The northern grid links Ipoh with Padang Besar with a distance of 338.

8km valued at RM6 billion.

China Railway Engineering Corp and local partner DRB-Hicom Bhd, Emrail SdnBhd and Kien Huat Group have been identified to undertake double-trackingworks of the southern grid also valued at RM6 billion.

The 297km southern grid will link the Seremban and Johor Baru stretch.

Mitsui Consortium was given a contract to implement the power generation,electrification and signalling system for both portions of the tracks.

Malaysia and India in May signed a memorandum of understanding on thecounter-trade during Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's visit toMalaysia.

The counter-trade will see the delivery of around eight million tonnes ofpalm oil over a period of between five and six years.

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.

The source added it is only a matter of time until the agreement will beformally signed.

"Ircon is not new to this kind of arrangement because this is the secondcounter trade deal that we are undertaking after the double-trackingproject of the Port of Tanjung Pelepas in Johor.

"Ircon have received palm oil as payments since March last year as part ofour contract in building a link in Port of Tanjung Pelepas in Johor worthUS$120 million (US$1 = RM3.80) and is currently on-going," the sourceconcluded.

29 August 2001Business Times