The state Transport Minister said the three ART lines are Blue Line – from Rembus to Hikmah Exchange (27.6 kilometres), Red Line – from Kuching Sentral to Pending (12.3 kilometres) and Green Line – from Pending to Damai Central (30 kilometres), with a total length of 69.9 kilometres.

“The Blue, Red and Green lines are expected to be completed in Q4 of 2025, Q4 of 2026, and Q4 of 2027 respectively,” he said when delivering his winding-up speech yesterday.

Lee revealed that the total expenditure until December last year was RM63.5 million.

He said the launching of the Rembus Depot construction on Dec 16 last year marked the commencement of Phase 1 of the ART project.

The Rembus Depot, he added, will serve as the central hub for ART’s operations and administration, mechanical and infrastructure workshops, stabling yard as well as the hydrogen refuelling facilities.

“Concurrently, as of May 2023 Sarawak Metro had awarded 16 contracts for consultancy services with a total sum of RM179.67 million.

“Construction commenced with the advance works for Rembus Depot awarded to Hock Seng Lee Sdn Bhd in October 2022 at the cost of RM64.33 million. The scope of works includes site clearing, utilities relocation and earthworks,” he added.

He highlighted that the procurement for System Package 1 was done through open tender, which was subsequently awarded to EPR Mobilus GR JV Sdn Bhd in June last year at a cost of RM1.425 billion.

The System Package 1 comprises various components including design, engineering, procurement, manufacture, assembling, testing and commissioning and handover of hydrogen vehicles, depot equipment and maintenance vehicles, automatic platform gate and signalling and control system.

Similarly, he said the System Package 2 was also procured through open tender, which contract was awarded to DOM-EEB JV Sdn Bhd at a contract sum of RM448 million.

The components of System Package 2 include elecommunication, supervisory control and data acquisition, automatic fare collection, computerised maintenance management system, operation control centre and information technology system.

“The open tender notice for the Construction and Completion of Rembus Depot Package Contract was advertised on May 16, 2023 and will close on July 12, 2023,” he said.

According to Lee, the tender for ART Alignment and Station Work Package Contracts comprises the civil, infrastructure, mechanical and electrical works along Blue Line from Rembus to Riveria, and Red Line from Kuching Sentral to Pending will be called tentatively between third and fourth quarter of this year, respectively.

“As part of the components of the KUTS project, we will deploy Hydrogen Feeder Bus to provide first and last-mile connectivity to the ART stations.

“In this respect, the tender for the Hydrogen Feeder Bus and Bus Integrated System contracts will be called tentatively in the third quarter of this year,” he said.

He also informed the august House that the Prototype ART Hydrogen vehicle had successfully completed Stage 1 of the Proof of Concept (POC) exercise at the CRRC Zhuzhou Institute Company Limited facility in China in March this year.

Following the successful Stage 1 testing in China, he said the Stage 2 of the POC exercise will be carried out here in Kuching.

“The Prototype ART Hydrogen vehicle is tentatively scheduled to arrive by the end of July this year. An engineering run will be conducted at the Isthmus area from September to October 2023.

“Subsequently, the testing of the prototype vehicle along the three-kilometre ART lane of the Kuching–Samarahan Expressway is tentatively in November 2023. The construction of the ART lane is still on-going,” he added.