Malaysia's KTM Berhad has asked Ircon International, an Indian Railways arm, to build a railway line. The project, to be completed in 30 months, is worth Rs 5.25 billion.

Ircon says bills to be raised by it on the KTM Berhad project will allow MMTC, another public enterprise engaged in international trading, to lift about 200,000 tonnes of palm oil from Malaysia on its behalf over a two-and-a-half-year period. The money from the oil sales will be credited to Ircon International.

India is a regular and major buyer of palm oil from Malaysia. The south-east Asian country had sold palm oil worth Rs 30 billion to India in 1998-99, almost double the sales totalling Rs 16.61 billion in the previous year.

These large purchases from Malaysia place India in a position to ride on its buying power topush for project business in the country. The approach was, however, unsuccessfully tried in the past. The currency crisis which gripped the south-east Asian economies has provided a new opportunity for India to exert itself.

The barter offer by Ircon has facilitated the payment for the project by the railway authorities in Malaysia, a country still smarting under the financial crisis. Ircon had initiated the move in September last year, resulting in the project deal this month.

The 34-km rail line to be built by Ircon will link up the new port coming up at Tanjung Pelepas in Johar province with the Malaysian railway network at Pelabauhan. The rail line is significant for the success of the big ship container business expected by Malaysia at the new port. CMC India has a Rs 420 million contract for the computerisation of the port operations. "The project is a great engineering challenge as the railway line has to be built through trecherous soil, part of which is marshy land also," said Ircon's GMfor marketing Desh Deepak.

India Abroad News Service