Port expansion on Ahead of schedule

The excavation work on the development of the inner harbour at Kuantan Port is progressing well and is projected to be completed six months ahead of schedule.

This was disclosed to the Transport Minister, Dato' Seri Dr Ling Liong Sik when he visited the Port on June 26 to get a first hand account of the development of the Port.

The Minister was briefed on the progress of the dredging of the harbour basin by the Executive Director/ Chief Operating Officer Dato' Mohamed Awang Tera who said almost 35 per cent of the work have been completed.

The Minister expressed satisfaction on the progress of the project aimed at enhancing the berthing capacity of the port.

The expansion is aimed at meeting the demand for dedicated petrochemical facilities as in the light of surge in investments in the petrochemical industries in Pahang. A number of companies have registered their interest to develop and operate their own facilities to handle their cargo.

Dato' Mohamed also stressed that the turnkey contractor, Road Builder-Pasdec in association with HSS Integrated Sdn Bhd as the engineering consultant, has given its commitment to complete their excavation work ahead of original schedule of 14 December 2001.

The contractor is required to create an additional basin to allow the Port to develop an additional 2.55 km berth for petrochemical, container and general cargoes berths. The contractors will dredge 80 ha of land to a depth of 13.8 metre to create a new water basin as an extension to the exiting Kuantan Port harbour basin.

The proposed additional berths will be constructed in phases by KPC, over the 30-year concession period (which expires in 2027).

"An important aspect of the RM169.72 million port extension work is the creation of new 48 hectares of industrial land using the excavated material. This will be a prime land to industries with an idea to have their own tank farm facilities within the port limit, " said Dato' Mohamed.

After visit the dredging site of the inner basin in Kuantan Port, the Transport Minister said the capacity of Kuantan port would be greatly enhanced with completion of inner water basin.

Under the expansion plan, Kuantan port is set to become as one of the major ports in the Asia Pacific region with handling capacity in excess of 15 million tonnes.

With the completion of expansion work, the existing harbour basin of the Port which is protected by 2 km of breakwaters from the South China will be extended inland mainly for the future petrochemical and container cargo in the East Coast, said the Minister of Transport, Dato' Seri Dr Ling Liong Sik.

Also present during the briefing were the KPC Executive Director, Dato' Shamsuddin Md Dubi and other senior officials from Kuantan Port Authorities.