Finally........ progress

This is more I like it. Remember what I talked about when I wrote the article about Firefly, Penang's very own low cost carrier? You got it right, we need some progress on our national railway, after 2 years of stalled work. I won't go on to elaborate what happened then as I'm not familiar with what happened then.

Here's today's news:
Double tracking project on again, that's right. According to the article,

The Cabinet Committee on Public Transport has decided to revive the shelved Ipoh-Padang Besar double tracking project. [Source: The Star]

Contractor for this project:

.............Gamuda Bhd and MMC Corp Bhd............ [Source: The Star]

Time horizon to completion:

...........about two years........... [Source: The Star]

Question?

..........the Seremban-Johor Baru stretch would be awarded to an Indian company.......... [Source: The Star]

More questions?

• Why award the contract to an Indian company? Local companies can't do it?
• 2 years, that's awfully optimistic isn't it, we do know that Malaysian timing a bit different from rest of the world. Does 2 years mean 4 years?
• Boy, my fellow kedahan Uncle al-Bukhary is getting all the business he wants isn't it? But I'm not complaining, at least he is one of the better businessman around.

Yet more questions?

• Another SMART project? Gamuda's share must be worthed a lot now.
  
• Will rail travel replace air travel as the dominant sector like the way it is here in the UK?
  

References:

1. Double tracking project on again, Mazwin Nik Anis, March 17 2007, The Star.
2. Gamuda up on rail project news, Izwan Idris, March 17 2007, The Star.