MAHB: KLIA2 to open May 2, 2014

Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB), the country's airport operator, expects the much-awaited KLIA2 to be operational May next year.

The KLIA2 project, which UEMC-Bina Puri JV are the main contractors for the terminal building, has been delayed twice. It was first targeted for completion in April 2012 before being pushed forward to June 28 this year.

"UEMC-Bina Puri joint-venture (JV) have today confirmed that the completion date will be 30 April 2014 inclusive of securing the Certificate of Completion and Compliance (CCC) and Operational Readiness & Airport Transfer (ORAT) as per the contractual obligations.

"Based on the revised completion date by the contractors, we are targeting to open klia2 for operations on 2 May 2014," said MAHB in its statement on Bursa Malaysia on Tuesday.

It added that it will continue to monitor the progress of work being done by all contractors and liquidated ascertained damages (LAD) will be enforced according to the contractual obligation of respective contractors.

Meanwhile, in a separate statement, UEM Builders Bhd managing director Mohd Razin Ghazali said that the UEMC-Bina Puri JV aims to complete the remainder physical construction of approximately 7 per cent.

“Upon achieving physical completion, we together with MAHB will immediately work towards obtaining CCC from the relevant authorities, which typically takes up to eight weeks.

“After which, MAHB will undertake ORAT, a process that takes up an estimated three months to complete, with full handover to MAHB targeted on April 30, 2014,” said Razin.

UEM Builders is the parent company of UEM Construction Sdn Bhd (UEMC).

Bina Puri Holdings Bhd group executive director Matthew Tee said that the imposing of LAD by MAHB is a "standard clause" found in any construction contract and that the JV-company will "revisit the matter separately".

Tee also said that the JV partners had requested for several extensions and that the approved extended period grandted by MAHB was not sufficient in its opinion to undertake the construction work.

On Monday, MAHB said it started imposing LAD of RM199,445.40 per day on UEMC-Bina Puri JV.