Transport Minister Chan Kong Choy should give a full explanation on the controversy surrounding the delay and cost overruns of the RM4.6 billion Ipoh-Rawang electrified double-tracking project.

Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang, who last week revealed that the government had terminated the contract of DRB-Hicom, is demanding answers to the long-delayed project.

DRB-Hicom, an automotive, property and infrastructure group controlled by tycoon Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary, had only finished 88 percent of the rail project.

The project's original completion date was 2002, but has since been push back to 2007.

Five days after Lim had revealed the cancellation of the contract, the Transport Ministry confirmed that the project, which was given to DRB-Hicom in 2000, had been terminated. It did not state its reasons.

However, the ministry's two-paragraph statement did not say whether engineering group UEM had been awarded the contract to complete the unfinished 12 percent of the project at a cost of RM1.1 billion as contended by Lim.

The statement said that the Transport Ministry was finalising the appointment of "an entity" that would take over the project.

PMCs responsible

Lim charged that the project, which could end up costing over RM6 billion, is not only Chan's biggest failure as transport minister but also the "biggest Project Management Consultants (PMC) failure to date".

"At the end of last year, even Barisan Nasional members of parliament targeted Works Minister S Samy Vellu, calling for his resignation in Parliament, for the string of failed government infrastructure development projects involving highways, schools, hospitals...," said Lim

However, Samy had defended his ministry, arguing that the Public Works Department should not be blamed as these projects had been hijacked by the project management consultants - a consortium of companies appointed by the Finance Ministry to supervise these projects.

"But the PMC failures raised last year pale into insignificance when compared to the RM4.6 billion Ipoh-Rawang double tracking project, which will end up costing more than RM6 billion after a four-year delay," lamented Lim.

The opposition leader wanted Chan to explain whether action had been taken against Kinta-Samudra Kinta Kellas Consortium (KSKK), the PMC for the Ipoh-Rawang double-tracking project.

"Or will it be able to fully collect its commission which could be in the region of RM200 million despite the four-year delay and failures?"