MAHB bills UEMC-Bina Puri for delay

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) will be charging its contractor, UEMC-Bina Puri JV, RM199,445 per day starting Sunday for failing to meet the deadline to complete constructing the terminal building in klia2.

MAHB yesterday told Bursa Malaysia it had issued the certificate of non-completion to the JV company for the inability to finish its jobs by the approved deadline of June 15.

UEM Group unit, UEM Construction Sdn Bhd, holds a 60% equity stake in the joint venture while Bina Puri Holdings Bhd owns the remaining 40%.

The partnership is responsible for the construction of the terminal and satellite buildings, the link bridge between the buildings as well as several sector piers to the sides of both buildings.

So far, this is the only contractor that MAHB has revealed as not having met the deadline.

Earlier this month, the airport operator warned it would not grant any extension of time for the contractors to complete the klia2 project and liquidated ascertained damages (LAD) would be applied to contractors that are behind schedule.

The new low-cost carrier terminal (LCCT) was scheduled to open next Friday in conjunction with the 15th anniversary of the opening of Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA).

MAHB has yet to disclose a new opening date for klia2. In an earlier announcement, it said it could not determine a new opening date for klia2 until a detailed work programme and resource planning by the affected contractors "can be scrutinized by the project management team and consultants".

The scrutiny of the detailed work programme and resource planning is to enable the group to be convinced that there will be no "further slippage on the committed date of the completion as had happened in the past, it said.

"MAHB will continue to work closely with the affected contractors to resolve their problems in the most amicable manner for all parties concerned," said MAHB in a statement.

Some weeks ago, Bina Puri's executive director Mathew Tee told the media that he was confident that the company would not be obliged to pay compensation for its failure to meet construction deadline as the delay was caused by the changes made to the design of the terminal.

However, the airport operator made it clear that no extensions were needed because extensions had been granted to contractors that had already accounted for all the design changes requested by all stakeholders of klia2 up to now.

According to Tee, Bina Puri had asked for a third extension of time (EOT) until September or October to carry out minor additional works at KLIA2. The fist EOT was given until April 2012, while the second extension deadline was June 15. He said Bina Puri completed 93% of its portion of the klia2 project.

Among the parties awarded klia2 contracts were Gadang Holdings Bhd, WCT Bhd and KUB Bhd, which is given the job to build runway and taxi ways. Both Gadang and WCT were involved in the earthworks, which was completed in the early stages of the project.


This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on June 18, 2013.