JOINT venture partners China Gezhouba Group Company Ltd (CGGC) and Untang Jaya Sdn Bhd today signed a RM3 billion main civil works contract for the Baleh hydroelectric dam project with SEB Power Sdn Bhd.

SEB Power is a subsidiary of Sarawak Energy Bhd.

Under the contract, the China-Sarawak JV company, in which CGGC has a 70% equity, will construct the dam, intake structure, spillway, and penstocks.

SEB chairman Hamed Sepawi said design work would start this month and construction work in October next year.

The RM8 billion dam with a 1,285mw capacity is scheduled to be completed in 2025. It will supply power to the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy, home to energy-intensive industries such as aluminium, ferro silicon and manganese alloys smelting plants.

Sharbini said financing for the dam would be generated internally. The remaining RM5.5 billion from the inaugural sukuk Musyarakah bond will also be used to pay for the project.

The sukuk, issued in 2011, generated RM15 billion.

In his address, Hamed said CGGC was an international company with an excellent track record of over 100 hydropower projects around the world.
Untung Jaya is a Class A contractor based in Baleh which Hamed said “truly represents our local participation” in line “with our aims to support the state’s initiatives to maximise local and Bumiputera content in our procurement and contracts”.

The Baleh dam is bigger than the recently commissioned 944Mw Murum dam, the first major dam built by SEB.

The 2,400Mw Bakun dam developed by federal government-owned Sarawak Hidro Sdn Bhd is the state’s biggest dam.

All three dams are located in the interior of Kapit.

Deputy Chief Minister James Jemut Masing witnessed the signing of the contract. – August 2, 2017.