This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on April 2, 2019

KUALA LUMPUR: The government said yesterday it had sought for another six-month extension — its fifth request for more time — to decide on its next action on the Johor-Singapore rapid transit system (RTS) link, connecting Johor Baru with the Woodlands North station on Singapore’s Thomson-East Coast mass rapid transit line.

“We are asking for an extension of six months, until September,” Transport Minister Anthony Loke told reporters at the Parliament lobby yesterday, following a lapse of the last extension on March 31.

“We are asking for more time from the Singapore government  for us to study other options. Of course, we are looking at the costs of the project, how we can reduce the costs further and how do we utilise the project,” he added.

On whether the Singapore government has agreed to the extension and if there is any compensation involved, Loke said: “There will be some agreement with them (Singapore).”

“We will reveal [the details] later. There will be the [9th Singapore-Malaysia Leaders’] Retreat next week (on April 8 and 9),” he said.

The project was originally meant for completion by end-2024, but Malaysia has been asking for more time to confirm the joint-venture (JV) partner for the project.

Malaysia initially selected Prasarana Malaysia Bhd to partner Singapore’s SMRT Corp as the operator  of the RTS link, with the appointment scheduled for June 2018.

However, following the change in Malaysia’s federal administration from Barisan Nasional to Pakatan Harapan, the latter had sought a review of large-scale federal infrastructure projects to optimise costs, including the RTS.

Since then, Malaysia has delayed the JV partner announcement four times, from when it pushed the date to September 2018, then December 2018, and later to Feb 28, before extending it once again to March 31. In light of this, the link’s completion is likely to be delayed, according to news reports.