Christopher Tan The Straits Times AsiaOne 27 Feb 15;
Work will start in the middle of this year on Singapore's Tuas mega port, with the first reclamation project of the area awarded to South Korean conglomerate Daelim Industrial.
Daelim will also undertake dredging and wharf construction in the first phase of a facility that could eventually handle 65 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of cargo annually - nearly double the amount Singapore handled last year.
The Maritime and Port Authority (MPA) of Singapore awarded the project to Daelim - South Korea's fourth largest builder - for about $875 million.
Daelim partnered Dredging International to bid for the project. Yonhap news agency reported that the Belgian firm will be paid close to $1.6 billion for its share of the works.
The MPA told The Straits Times that works will include building an 8.6km quay wall, reclaiming about 300ha of land from the sea, and dredging the navigational channels to deepen the harbour so it can accommodate larger vessels.
The project is expected to be completed by 2021.
Singapore plans to move all its port activities to Tuas South by 2027, freeing up prime land in Tanjong Pagar and Pasir Panjang for future residential and mixed-use developments.
Even as works are under way to build Tuas Port, capacity is expanding at Pasir Panjang to cope with rising demand.
At a media lunch yesterday, MPA chairman Lucien Wong said: "We can also look forward to the commissioning of Pasir Panjang Terminals 3 and 4 by the middle of this year."
The authority said the contract commences this Saturday, but dredging works will begin only in the middle of the year, after plans have been approved.
