Debated in Parliament on 16 Aug 2016.
Mr Dennis Tan Lip Fong asked the Minister for Transport (a) whether the Ministry/LTA was aware of the problems with the MRT trains delivered in 2013 from Kawasaki Heavy Industries and CSR Sifang under a previous contract before placing new orders with the same consortium for more trains in 2014 and 2015; (b) if so, why were further contracts for additional trains extended to the same consortium; (c) whether the Ministry/LTA had evaluated alternative suppliers before placing the new orders in 2014 and 2015; (d) whether there were any changes made to the new contracts with the consortium in 2014 and/or 2015 or any extraordinary quality control measures put in place to ensure that the same problems would not recur; and (e) whether the Ministry/LTA has required the supplier to provide mitigating solutions or compensation for the operational setback.
Mdm Speaker, the consortium, Kawasaki-Sifang, had fully complied with the terms of their warranty and was cooperative. In fact, as I elaborated just now, I think they were exemplary in their conduct. After the defects were discovered, they immediately committed to making the rectifications to the Land Transport Authority's full satisfaction. All costs, including shipping, are borne by them. The concern about the defects had thus been resolved when we called the tender for more trains in 2014 and 2015.
Our train tenders have always been conducted in an open and transparent manner, and are based objectively on quality and price assessments. Kawasaki-Sifang won the subsequent tenders fairly. The list of tenderers and their prices are publicly available online.
Mr Dennis Tan.
I thank the Minister for the reply. In subsection (d) of my question, could the Minister clarify whether or not in light of what has been discovered in respect of the hairline cracks, whether any additional measures were in place or any additional clauses were worked into the contract to prevent or to handle this aspect of the hairline crack problem?
Sorry for missing out on that little subsection. The subsequent contracts will have the bolsters from Japan.
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