Malaysia-Singapore high speed rail project on track

The Star 21 Nov 13;

PROPOSED talks have been scheduled next month between Malaysia and Singapore to get the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore high speed rail link project back on track, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Nancy Shukri said here.

She said the talks, which had been initially set for October, were postponed to next month.

“Negotiations on the high speed rail link project between Malaysia and Singapore will centre on technical and legal issues including financing and policies,” she said when answering a question raised by Wong Chen (PKR-Kelana Jaya).

However, she said, finer details of the proposed rail link were still not finalised pending discussions between the two countries.

To a supplementary question by Wee Ka Siong (BN-Ayer Hitam), Nancy said the rail link would pass through the Klang Valley, Negeri Sembilan, Malacca and Johor and on to Singapore.

Wee suggested that proper engineering planning is done to ensure the feasibility of project, to avoid technical problems such as that affecting the earlier proposed Kunming-Singapore Railway link.

Earlier this year, Malaysia and Singapore announced plans for the rail link, which is expected to cut land travelling time between the two countries to just 90 minutes.

The project, targeted to be completed by 2020, is expected to cost about RM40bil. Several local and foreign firms have been reported to have started talks to form consortiums to bid for the project.

The firms are MMC Corp Bhd, which may team up with Gamuda Bhd and Chinese and European system integrators and YTL Corp Bhd with Spanish bullet trainmaker Talgo or CAF.

Later Wong told reporters that Malaysia should insist that the Singapore government pays at least 50% of the costs for the high speed train project.

“All high speed train studies show that in two connecting cities, the bigger city becomes more prosperous.

“Since Singapore is the bigger city here, it will stand to benefit substantially through this project,” he said.

Wong also called for a joint management of the train service, and implementation of the high procurement standards of the Singapore government, in managing the high speed rail.