Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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(Oct 22): Pakatan Harapan will cancel plans for a high-speed rail connection between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore if they take over Putrajaya.

The federal opposition said it would instead prioritise funds to enhance connectivity between cities in Sabah and Sarawak, The Straits Times reported today.

Pakatan presented its proposal to scrap the multi-billion ringgit Kuala Lumpur-Singapore high-speed rail (HSR) project ahead of the tabling of Budget 2016 by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak in Parliament tomorrow.

DAP's Serdang MP Dr Ong Kian Ming, who is a member of the Pakatan budget drafting committee, said they would allocate funds towards a railway line connecting Tawau in Sabah and Kuching, Sarawak.

He added that the high-speed rail link between KL and Singapore would mainly benefit those working in and around Kuala Lumpur and in Singapore, most of whom already had other options.

"HSR is not as important given that there are many cheaper and affordable modes of travel between Malaysia and Singapore. The multiplier effects would be lower compared with a new railway network in East Malaysia and hence, the preference for the second cheaper and more necessary rail project," he was quoted as saying by The Straits Times.

Aside from that, Ong said any rail network in the peninsula and Singapore would likely cost more than one built in Sabah and Sarawak.

The move by Pakatan is also seen as a way to increase its support among voters in the two East Malaysian states which are seen as "fixed deposits" for the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition.

Meanwhile, DAP chairman Tan Kok Wai said the new railway and other financial benefits to be allocated to Sabah and Sarawak in the opposition's "alternative budget" are meant to develop the two states "long neglected" by BN, the Singapore daily reported. – The Malaysian Insider

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