April 7, 2010
Embassy of Japan in Malaysia

On April 6, 2010, the ground-breaking ceremony to mark the start of the construction of the Pahang-Selangor raw water transfer tunnel, a project being carried out with the cooperation of the Japanese Government, was held in Karak, Pahang.

This significant event was graced by H.R.H Tengku Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah, and a total of 700 people attended the ceremony, including Chief Minister of Pahang Datuk Seri Adnan Yaakob, Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister Hon. Datuk Peter Chin Fah Kui, Ambassador of Japan to Malaysia H.E. Masahiko Horie, representatives from the federal and state governments as well as residents from the project area.

In the ceremony, Sultan Ahmad Shah made the inaugural drilling into the tunnel pithead and signed on the plaque to commemorate the start of this project.

The aim of this project is to distribute about 1.89 billion litres of water per day, an equivalent of the water consumption of 6 million households, to the state of Selangor and the Federal Territories of Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya.

Water demands for these regions have drastically increased with the increasing development of the economy since the 1980s. The situation further aggravated with time and these regions were confronted with serious water shortages over half a year in 1977-1998. Such experience led to the birth of the Pahang-Selangor Raw Water Transfer Project after various water resource development plans have been examined.

The Government of Japan has committed to support this project with a yen loan of concessional terms covering around 70% of the total cost (grant allowance of 82.04 billion yen) at an annual interest rate of 0.95% for over 40 years.

This ceremony marks the start of the construction of the tunnel, a main part of this project. This tunnel will be the largest and longest raw water transfer tunnel in Southeast Asia and the 6th biggest in the world when completed.  Throughout the construction process, the joint-venture companies of Japan (Shimizu Corp. and Nishimatsu Construction) are going to share their experiences and the know-how of sophisticated and advanced tunnel excavating technology that Japan possesses with their Malaysian partners (UEM and IJM).

In the ceremony, Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister Datuk Peter Chin Fah Kui expressed deep gratitude to Japan and JICA for the cooperation with Malaysia and exhorted this good project to be carried out following the implementation guidelines of JICA.