Companies planning to spearhead the development of the Bandar Malaysia project can submit their bids until this Thursday.

Treasury secretary-general Mohd Irwan Serigar Abdullah said applications were still being received when asked when the bidding results will be announced.

"The closing date is the 20th of this month. Then we will collect (the submissions) and then we will evaluate.

"The inquiry is coming in and there are also some parties already accepted," he told reporters in Cyberjaya today.

Asked whether any companies have been shortlisted, the Bandar Malaysia Sdn Bhd chairperson said: "No, not yet. We are still evaluating."

Irwan had previously said that Putrajaya was eyeing top companies on the Fortune 500 list to spearhead the development of the Bandar Malaysia project.

The government had, in May, abruptly terminated its plan to sell a 60 percent stake in Bandar Malaysia to IWH-CREC Sdn Bhd, a consortium comprising Iskandar Waterfront Holdings and China Railway Engineering Corporation (CREC).

The government claimed the consortium had failed to fulfil the necessary payments, a claim IWH-CREC denies.

Since then, Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak had lobbied China's Wanda Group, the country's largest private developer, to take up the Bandar Malaysia project. However, no deal was signed amid China's tight capital controls.

Beijing had reportedly insisted that CREC, a state-owned company, should be retained in the Bandar Malaysia project.