KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 17): Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said today Malaysia looks forward to commence the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High Speed Rail (HSR) project by next year to enable operations to start in 2026.

Today, Najib said Malaysian government-owned MyHSR Corp Sdn Bhd had started the land acquisition process for the project.

"Starting with the Section Four process of the Land Acquisition Act 1960, MyHSR has and is submitting its application to the relevant government authorities for land freezing purposes, an essential process to study the viability of the pre-selected areas. Then, these selected areas are further refined to reflect public's feedback on the alignment.

"After which, the finalised areas of land will then be acquired for the project. MyHSR has also set up a hotline for the ease of the rakyat to share their feedback and concerns. Again, I encourage everyone to use these avenues to share your feedback," Najib said.

He was speaking to reporters here today at the unveiling ceremony of the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore HSR station concept designs.

Meanwhile, MyHSR chief executive officer Datuk Mohd Nur lsmal Mohamed Kamal said in a statement the company will start the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore HSR project's public inspection next month (November 2017) to obtain public feedback on the project.

"We will be beginning the public inspection exercise in November, to gather public's feedback on the project, simultaneously in all locations along the alignment. We look forward to working together with everyone towards achieving the targeted 2026 project completion and service operations date," Mohd Nur lsmal said.