Prasarana gives Scomi 60 days to deliver

A monorail train travelling along an elevated beam in Brickfields.

KUALA LUMPUR: Prasarana Malaysia Bhd has broken its silence on the dispute with Scomi Engineering Bhd’s unit Scomi Transit Projects Sdn Bhd, claiming that Scomi failed to deliver on time the trains for the Kuala Lumpur Monorail System.

Scomi Engineering had told Bursa Malaysia on March 1 that Scomi Transit Projects had secured ex parte (one side only) injunction restraining Prasarana from wrongfully terminating the RM494mil contract for the monorail fleet expansion project and/or the second supplemental contract dated April 15, 2015.

In its statement on Wednesday, Prasarana said Scomi had not only failed to comply with the Stage Gate Schedule 2 of the second supplemental contract on the train delivery but had also failed to submit any mitigation plan to remedy the delay as requested by Prasarana on Jan 4.

Under the principal contract signed between Prasarana and Scomi in 2011, Scomi was contracted to deliver 12 sets of new four-car monorail trains, construct a new depot, and install a new signalling system, as well as to upgrade the Kuala Lumpur monorail stations, including the electrical and mechanical systems, for a total contract value of RM494mil.

According to Prasarana, the second supplemental contract required Scomi to deliver 10 sets of the four-car trains, including seven sets for revenue service, by Dec 31, 2015.

To date, only six sets have been delivered, of which five sets are currently in revenue service. “Works related to the upgrading of the monorail stations and other related systems are still in progress pending the full delivery of the remaining four-car monorail trains,” it said.

Prasarana has issued a notice of remedy to Scomi, giving it 60 days from March 8, 2016 to comply. If Scomi fails, Prasarana said it “would be at liberty to terminate the principal contract dated June 3, 2011, the supplemental agreement dated April 16, 2014, and the second supplemental contract dated April 15, 2015.”

The ex-parte injunction against Prasarana will be up to April 1, when the court will hear the injunction on an inter partes (between the parties) basis.

In the March 1 announcement, Scomi said the legal action and injunction were necessary as Prasarana had “threatened to terminate the KL Monorail expansion contract in disregard to the terms set out therein.”