KUALA LUMPUR: The Railwaymen Union of Malaya (RUM) urged the Pakatan Harapan government to practice an open tender to reduce the dumping of the train sets from China as well as to look into the track record of the trains previously purchased from the country.
“The union is against the purchase of the train sets from China based on their track records such as Dalian Locomotive and Six Car Set (SCS) which are known to have many problems, not to mention the purchase of these trains from China were all done through direct negotiations,” said its president Abdul Razak Md Hassan in a statement today
The call was made following the report yesterday that Transport Minister Anthony Loke Siew Fook welcomed the investment of China Railway Rolling Stock Corp (CRRC), a locomotive manufacturer, in a bid to turn the country into a manufacturing hub for railway equipment for the ASEAN market.
Abdul Razak said the previous government had already spent about RM5.7 billion to buy 100 train sets without open tender from the Chinese rail company since 2012.
He said the company had also offered to supply 30 units of Electric Locomotive (E-Loco) to the government then but the union and Keretapi Tanah Melayu Berhad (KTMB) protested the purchase due to its limited use compared to Diesel Locomotive.
If the KTMB purchased the E-Loco then, he said, it would have to spend an additional cost of RM100 million to upgrade the electrification system. — Bernama
