The initiation of the Penang Major Roads and Third Link Project began with an MOU signed between the Beijing Urban Construction Group Co.Ltd (BUCG) and the Penang State Government on 28 April 2011, witnessed by the Chinese Premiere Wen Jiabao and former Malaysian Prime Minister, Dato' Sri Mohd Najib Tun Abdul Razak.

 

Despite the existence of the MOU, the Penang State Government stood firm on its good governance principle in implementing its Competency, Accountability and Transparency (CAT) Policy and adopted the open tender system and invited contractors nationwide to partake in a Pre-Qualification Exercise on 14 November 2011.

 

BUCG banded together with Zenith Construction Sdn Bhd and a few other construction companies to participate in the Pre-Qualification Exercise and was subsequently shortlisted as a qualified participant to submit the Request for Proposal to the Penang State Government. Consortium Zenith Construction Sdn Bhd (formerly known as Consortium Zenith BUCG Sdn Bhd) as a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) was incorporated on 5 July 2012 to prepare the Request for Proposal, which was submitted on 15 October 2012.

 

The SPV was chosen by the Penang Tender Committee via an open tender as the principal contractor to undertake the said project worth RM6.341 billion via an official Letter of Intent issued by the Penang State Government on 6 February 2013.

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A Preliminary Agreement was signed between the Penang State Government and Consortium Zenith Construction Sdn Bhd on 6 October 2013. Subsequent to it, Feasibility Study and Preliminary Detailed Design work for the project was carried out and leading to the conditional approval of the Environmental Impact Assessment by the Department of Environment.