Recently, the civil engineering project of LRT CMC2 in Malaysia has completed the bid opening, and six consortia formed by local enterprises and Chinese enterprises have submitted their bidding materials. The total length of this section of the line is about 6 kilometers, connecting the Penang Island Gojo Road Station and the North Sea Central Plaza Station. It includes a 3-kilometer cross sea track with extremely difficult construction, and the estimated project cost is 1 billion US dollars. The project party, Malaysia National Infrastructure Corporation, is reviewing the bidding proposals one by one and clarifying that the project will proceed according to plan to ensure timely completion by December 2031.

Multiple companies jointly bid

It is reported that all six consortia participating in this bidding are led by local enterprises and have introduced Chinese enterprises for cooperation.

Kerjaya Prospek, a subsidiary of Kerjaya, led the formation of a consortium to jointly bid with China Hydropower and China Power Construction; Ma Resources joins hands with China Railway to participate in the competition; MMC teamed up with Samsung Construction and a Chinese company to bid; TRC collaborates with China Communications Construction Corporation; Yang Zhongli Agency teamed up with a subsidiary of China Railway Group to participate in this bidding process; WCT Holdings will jointly bid with Lion Pacific and China Construction Group.

Strict requirements for bidding qualifications

This bidding has set strict qualification requirements: bidding companies must have construction experience in civil and railway engineering with a single cost of not less than 500 million ringgit, and must also have undertaken cable-stayed bridges with a main waterway span of 300 meters or more across water bodies. This requirement is determined based on the actual situation of the project. As the project includes the construction of cross sea tracks, special design adjustments have been made to the main span of the bridge to ensure traffic safety.

According to the overall plan, the Pearl Line of Penang Light Rail has a total length of approximately 29.67 kilometers, with the planned construction of 20 standard stations and 2 reserved stations. The first phase of the civil engineering project for the section from Silicon Valley Island to Everbright Station was handed over to Jinwu Group for construction last year. After negotiations, the project cost was adjusted from an initial RM8.3 billion to RM7.9 billion. The estimated cost of the second phase civil engineering project is about 4 billion ringgit, and the industry believes that under market competition, the final winning bid price is expected to be further reduced. Keywords: Malaysia, Penang Light Rail, Transportation

Orderly promotion of multiple sections

The bidding for the line system section ended in June 2025, with bids ranging from RM2.8 billion to RM3.5 billion. To reduce project costs, the owner will subsequently adopt electronic bidding methods. At present, four shortlisted entities have been identified for this section, namely Jinwu University, WCT Holdings and Lion Pacific Consortium, Yang Zhongli Institution, and MMC. The final result has not been announced yet. The relevant staff are carefully verifying the cost breakdown and bill of quantities submitted by each party.Editor/Gong Ziwei