Scomi Bhd chief executive officer Shah Hakim @ Shahzanim Zain said his nominee company, NR Sistem Sdn Bhd, provided “technical expertise” and “networking capabilities” to help revive the once-shelved RM12 billion double-tracking railway project.

Testifying at the Kuala Lumpur High Court today, representing NR Sistem, Shah Hakim, 47, said MMC-Gamuda Joint-Venture Sdn Bhd’s managing director, Lin Yun Ling, had approached them for help to revive it.

Shah Hakim said he and former banker Seow Lun Hoo met Lin several times after the first approach.

This happened between February and September 2007, where Shah Hakim and Seow promised to promote to the government to revive the double tracking project on a private finance initiative basis.

“MMC Gamuda wanted to form a consortium as it is only interested in executing infrastructure works and did not have a contractor to execute system works for the projects,” he said.

“It was through our efforts that the project was revived.”

NR Sistem signed an agreement with MMC-Gamuda sometime in November 2007 to be part of the consortium to provide system works. However, the joint-venture company is alleged to have breached this agreement.

Shah Hakim was testifying in the RM360 million suit by NR Sistem, Seow and one Mansur Ghazali, who has experience in railway matters, against MMC-Gamuda.

Besides Shah Hakim, another witness who took the stand today was Seow.

The project was awarded by the government to MMC-Gamuda on Oct 21, 2003 before former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad retired.

However, the project was shelved in December 2003 during Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s tenure as prime minister.

In NR Sistem’s statement of claim, the company and the three plaintiffs alleged that Lin, representing MMC-Gamuda, approached them to revive the project on a PFI basis. Lin invited Seow to form a consortium to undertake system works.

Seow, along with Shah Hakim and Mansur, helped to revive the project and undertake the system works.

NR Sistem took steps to revive the project by meeting the minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in charge of the Economic Planning Unit, the then-transport minister and the managing director of Keretapi Tanah Melayu Bhd.

Witness denies using Pak Lah’s son

Shah Hakim also testified that he met former-transport minister Ong Tee Keat several times in a bid to revive the project.

Meanwhile, when cross-examined by lawyer Ranjit Singh representing MMC-Gamuda, Shah Hakim agreed that Scomi is involved in urban development projects where it operates the monorail and the light rail transit projects, providing expertise and infrastructure

kamaluddin abdullah He agreed that one of the majority shareholders of Scomi was Kamaludin Abdullah ( left ), who is Pak Lah’s son.

When queried over the networking capabilities, Ranjit asked whether Shah Hakim had used his relationship with Kamaludin to revive the project, to which the Scomi chief executive officer  denied.

At one point, Shah Hakim described that there was a possibility that MMC-Gamuda’s presentation could be bad (resulting in problems of it reviving the project), whereas MMC-Gamuda had engaged its services following good a presentation, for the project to be revived.

This resulted in Ranjit to snap that MMC-Gamuda was provided with the project in the first place.

The witness however, agreed that MMC was awarded the Tanjung Pelepas project and had carried out the project diligently.

The double-tracking railway project from north to south is a joint venture between MMC-Gamuda where each holds a 50 percent stake. MMC is owned by Syed Mokhtar Al Bukhary.

‘Shah Hakim did leg work’

Seow, a former chief executive officer of Hong Leong Credit Bhd who took the stand after Shah Hakim, also verified that Lin had approached him first sometime in February 2006 to help towards reviving the project.

The 63-year-old Seow said following his meeting with Lin, he roped in Shah Hakim’s help to revive the project.

“Lin had approached us for the formation of a special purpose vehicle to revive the project and also to have engineering procurement content. Following, this I helped draft a plan,” he said, showing to court the draft of his plan, and his writing.

“Shah Hakim laid the ground work by meeting government officials to help revive the project,” he said to questions by NR Services lawyer Rosli Dahlan.

As a result, Seow said he got to know the project was successfully revived.

The hearing continues tomorrow before Justice Rosilah Yop.

Meanwhile, MMC-Gamuda in its statement of defence, denied that there was an agreement reached between Lin and NR Services to undertake system works for the project to be revived.

The two corporate giants deny that NR Sistem, along with Shah Hakim, liaised with the government and held meeting with them to revive the project. They also deny the notion that MMC-Gamuda lacked the necessary expertise and knowledge.