PUTRAJAYA: Claims of low Bumiputera and local participation in the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) project were inaccurate as a total of 81 Bumiputera-majority companies participated in that project, said the Ministry of Transport (MOT).

In a statement today, MOT said the 81 companies had participated in the ECRL project with a value of RM320 million as of August this year, and this constituted 10.67 per cent of the entire project's planned RM3 billion in total Bumiputera participation value.

"It is less than accurate to assert that the participation of Bumiputera contractors in the ECRL is non-existent," it said in a statement today in response to Pasir Salak Member of Parliament Datuk Seri Tajuddin Abdul Rahman's contention in Parliament on Oct 5 that Bumiputra participation was "non-existent".

MOT said these 81 Bumiputera companies had successfully passed the pre-qualifying exercise done in 2017 and 2019 and won their contracts competitively through bids with the engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning (EPCC) main contractor.

They are 43 contractors, two consultant firms, and 36 vendors and suppliers.

MOT said the total local participation rate of the ECRL had a value of RM4.59 billion from a planned total of RM10 billion with 1,368 companies participating.

It said that under the Supplementary Agreement No. 6, the effective participation rate of Bumiputera companies in the ECRL would be raised from 30 to 32.9 per cent, a commendable commitment by the main EPCC contractor to raise the percentage of local and Bumiputera participation in the mega project.

This was a result of a special committee formed in October 2020 chaired by the MOT secretary-general to oversee the increase of local and Bumiputera participation in the project, it said.

On Tuesday, Wee said the target completion of the ECRL project remained at Dec 31, 2026, for Section A, from Kota Bharu to Dungun, and B, from Dungun to Temerloh.

Wee said the completion of Section C, from Temerloh to Port Klang, expected to be delayed by 12 months, would be by Dec 31, 2027.

-- BERNAMA