Tycoon Gets Deal to Build Mukah Airport

KUCHING: The contract to build the RM700 million airport in Mukah has been awarded to tycoon Tan Sri Ting Pek Khiing’s company, Global Upline.

At his Chinese New Year open house on Thursday, Ting said his company would build the “international standard” airport, Sarawak’s second largest, capable of handling Boeing 747s and other wide- bodied aircraft.

Ting, the country’s best known airport builder and upgrade contractor, said the airport would be built near Judan, a few kilometres from the centre of the coastal town.

He would not disclose when work will begin.

Mukah is a gateway to the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (Score) that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is launching today. It is one of two major towns in the corridor.

The oil and gas town of Bintulu is the other, and it has an airport that can handle Boeing 747-sized aircraft.

The RM380 million airport was built by Global Upline under the Government Deferred Payment Scheme, a scheme to kick-start the economy after it was hit by the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s.

Located 20km from Bintulu town, it was completed in 2002, replacing the old airport that was nearer the town.

At present, Mukah has an airstrip that caters to small aircraft like the 19-seater Twin Otters.

The fishing port with a population of about 100,000 has a large coal mine feeding independent power producer Sarawak Energy Bhd’s Mukah power generation plant. Its hinterland has been developed into oil palm plantations.

Other major airport contracts awarded by the Transport Ministry to Global Upline include the upgrading of the Miri, Labuan, Kuching and Kota Kinabalu international airports.

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