KUALA LUMPUR: The remaining packages under the RM4 billion Rasau Water Supply Scheme (Phase 1) will be awarded in the next one to two months, Pengurusan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd chief executive officer Suhaimi Kamaralzaman said.
Suhaimi said according to the stipulated timeline of the project, the site possession, construction and the groundbreaking of the plant would happen early next year.
"For Phase 1 of the Rasau project, we have three packages. Package 1 is primarily on the plant itself, Package 2 will be primarily the pipelines and Package 3 will be the reservoir part of the project.
"We have recently awarded Package 3. Basically, the tendering and evaluation was done earlier in the year and the award for Package 3 has just come out. We anticipate to award Package 1 and 2 in the next one to two months. That is the status.
"So depending on when we award, the site possession will follow suit, then the construction and groundbreaking for the plant will happen early next year," he said during Air Selangor's year-end virtual media interview today.
According to Air Selangor, the first phase of the project involves the construction of a 700 million litre a day (MLD) treatment plant.
The second phase, which doubles the capacity to 1,400 MLD a day, will cost an additional RM2 billion, and the work is estimated to be completed by 2024.
Earlier this month, Taliworks Corporation Bhd was awarded Package 3 of the project to design and build of Bukit Lipat Kajang Booster Station reservoirs at a contract sum of RM293.86 million.
Meanwhile, Suhaimi said the company's current reserve margin stood at 13 per cent, an increase from around three to four per cent since 2015, after it took over the concession from Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd (Syabas).
He said the company wa working on meeting the government's target of a comfortable level of reserve margin of 15 per cent by 2025 and subsequently, 20 per cent by 2030.
"A comfortable reserve margin as defined by the government is 20 per cent and we have about eight to nine more years to work towards meeting that target which will be comparable to developed nations," he said.
He added that however, the number was uniformed across all the regions that the company operates in.
"The number could well be five per cent in one region and could well be 20 per cent or more in another. That is why despite the 13 per cent reserve margin, we are constructing the Rasau water treatment plant to address the reserve margin issue in certain part of our operational area in particular Klang for the Stage 1 of Rasau.
"For Stage 2, we are looking at Petaling reserve margin as well. So it is something that we have to work on continuously throughout our operations," he added.