UMK Bachok Entrepreneurship Faculty Complex Project Delayed – Ahmad Maslan

BACHOK, June 28 (Bernama) -- The construction of the Entrepreneurship Faculty Complex at Universiti Malaysia Kelantan (UMK) Bachok campus has fallen behind schedule and has been granted four extensions of time (EOT), according to Deputy Works Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Maslan.

He said this fourth EOT will be the final one, adding that the ministry expects the project to be fully completed by Oct 20 this year.

"I have informed the contractor and JKR (Public Works Department) that we don't favour EOTs as we prefer AOTs (Ahead of Time).

"The project is currently 68.9 per cent complete, which means there's about 30 per cent left to be done over the next three months…I hope they will implement two work shifts, day and night shifts, with each shift totalling 16 hours by two separate teams to ensure that the project is completed on time," he told reporters after inspecting the site here today.

He cited the construction of the Malaysian Armed Forces staff housing in Sabah, which was carried out in three shifts, stressing that the contractor of this project should implement a three-shift system if they have similar capabilities.

Ahmad said delays in the project would disadvantage three parties: the students for whom the complex is being built, the government, and the contractors themselves.

"The contractor mentioned just now that the monthly cost is RM50,000. They've already fallen behind by several months, so imagine RM50,000 multiplied by those months; that's the financial loss the contractor has to bear," he added.

-- BERNAMA