Wijaya Baru set to win flood mitigation job

WIJAYA Baru Global Bhd's 45 per cent associate, Wijaya Baru Sdn Bhd, is expected to be the main sub-contractor of a RM300 million flood mitigation project in the East Coast.

Wijaya Baru expects to receive up to 80 per cent of the RM300 million job.

We have signed an agreement with a friendly party who has been given a letter of intent for a flood mitigation project in the East Coast.

"A letter of award is expected to be given in the next two weeks to 30 days," its deputy chief executive officer Faizal Abdullah said.

"Eighty per cent of the RM300 million project would be Wijaya's portion," he added.

"The party has carried out all the designs, finished all negotiations and sent them to the Ministry of Finance and is awaiting the Letter of Award," Faizal said.

The flood mitigation project, expected to commence in June this year, will take about three years to be completed.

According to Faizal, the project will take longer than usual due to the monsoon season in the East Coast.

Meanwhile, Wijaya Baru (through its associate) is expected to complete the RM340 million flood mitigation project awarded to it in August 2007 by February/March 2009.

"We have RM275 million more to do which will take us one-and-a-half years to complete. It should be completed by March 2009," he said.

"We are also talking to the relevant authorities for the second phase of the Selangor flood mitigation that we are carrying out right now.

"We have started doing the design. We have been told to come out with the technical proposal on the areas that we need to look at to address the flood problems in the lower Klang Valley," Faizal said.

He added that he expects the news on the award of the project with an estimated value of RM1 billion, to be announced later this year.

"To solve the problem at the Sungai Damansara catchment, you need to spend a minimum of RM1 billion to have 100 years of protection.

"I would like to think that we are given the first right of refusal. We have done tremendously for design ... but I am in no position to decide," he said.

He added that Wijaya Baru also saw opportunities in Pahang, Kedah, Johor and Malacca.

"We want to specialise in flood mitigation projects. We would like to position ourselves in a way that when one thinks of floods, they think of Wijaya," he said.

By New Straits Times (by Vasantha Ganesan)