MyHSR Corporation is requesting concept proposals from local and international firms for development and operation of the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High Speed Rail (KL-SG HSR) project through a public-private partnership model, New Straits Times reported.
A formal request for information (RFI) exercise will be carried out to solicit private sector interest in the construction of the high-speed rail line as well as concept proposals from industry players in order to gauge their readiness and capabilities, while gathering innovative business models and supplementary revenue stream ideas for a privately-funded structure, according to The Star.
In its latest iteration, The Star reports, the KL-SG HSR will run across six states – Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya, Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, Melaka, and Johor – before crossing the Tebrau Strait into Jurong East in Singapore. With the latest machinery, the 350 km distance from Bandar Malaysia to Jurong East could be completed in 90 minutes through a non-stop service, it wrote.
A transit service will run in parallel with the high-speed rail line to serve future growth centres and these will be located in Bandar Malaysia, Sepang to Putrajaya, Seremban, Ayer Keroh, Muar, Batu Pahat and Iskandar Puteri.
The KL-SG HSR will feature co-located customs, immigration and quarantine (CIQ) complexes of both countries at each end of the rail line to facilitate seamless passenger movement, the report wrote. This will be joined by another co-located CIQ complex in Iskandar Puteri for travellers using the dedicated shuttle service to travel between Malaysia and Singapore, it added.
According to MyHSR Corp, the exercise will allow the government to assess the industry’s interest and ability to fully fund the project, while evaluating their capabilities in developing the project by observing areas such as technical specifications, project costing, commercial and business models, as well as consortium and governance framework, The Star wrote.
The briefing for the project will take place at the Finance Ministry office in Putrajaya on July 27, it added.
The plan for the KL-SG HSR began in December 2016 when Malaysia and Singapore signed a legally-binding bilateral agreement to facilitate the project, which was originally scheduled to have construction of the high-speed rail link begin in 2018 and completed in 2025, and for operations to commence in 2026.
In September 2018, at Malaysia’s request, both parties agreed to postpone the project until May 2020 to allow time to identify cost reduction options, including the review of the alignment, station locations and business model. The deferment saw Malaysia pay S$15 million (RM45.1 million at the time) as compensation for costs incurred by Singapore due to the postponed plans, which was made in 2019.
The KL-SG HSR project was once again deferred to December 31, 2020, before the project was terminated as announced at the beginning of 2021 as both countries could not come to an agreement on the proposed changes. Malaysia had to compensate Singapore around RM300 million for the termination.
Discussions on the KL-SG HSR resurfaced in November 2021 when former prime minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob made an official visit to Singapore, during which he suggested reviving discussions on the HSR to his Singaporean counterpart Lee Hsien Loong, who said he was open to any new proposal on the rail project.
In March this year, the Malaysian government said that it was open to reviving the KL-SG HSR project, albeit without the use of public funds.
Looking to sell your car? Sell it with Carro.
Not again.
Don’t be silly
How many travelers per day expected?
SG -KL -SG
SG -Seremban-SG
SG -Malacca -SG
SG -Muar -SG
SG -Batu Pahat -SG
With all the stops a HSR doesn’t make any sense, an ETS would be sufficient. The shinkansen doesn’t stop every 30km too.
Malaysia don’t need HSR, with short stretch the ETS is sufficent. Govement also have to cosider what will be the impact to our airport. Furtermore is the price per trips is affordable to normal Malaysian.
Wasnt this project cancelled and malaysia paid singapore few hundred millions ?
Will singapore shaft a banana into malaysia exhaust pipe again ?
hangat2 taik ayam je
The best approach for HSR is that the government hands off and let private firm fund and run it.
c’mon this is AL’s legacy project ma… die die must make it happen!
So can we claim back our tax payers money from the As man of RM330,000,000 paid to Singapore due to his blunder and then later in the month there’s talk about reviving itself last year.
Flip flop flip flop till we realise too late that our Konoha neigbour have it first. I rindu bossku