Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak is expected to announce details of the long-awaited high-speed rail (HSR) linking Kuala Lumpur and Singapore after the annual Malaysia-Singapore Leaders’ Retreat next week, said Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) chief executive officer Mohd Nur Ismal Mohamed Kamal.

“There will be a leaders’ retreat next week. It will be unfair for me to comment on the development of the HSR as it is still in the government-to-government discussion [stage]. Let’s just wait for now,” he told reporters after a forum yesterday on “The Rail Challenge: Taking City From Good to Great”, organised by the Performance Management and Delivery Unit. “It is premature for me to talk about it. Buy us some time until the announcement by the prime minister,” he said.

Najib is scheduled to attend the Sixth Malaysia-Singapore Annual Leaders’ Retreat in Singapore starting May 5, which will be hosted by Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. SPAD has been tasked by the government with preparing a feasibility study on the proposed HSR link, which will reduce the 300km journey from five hours to about 90 minutes.

On April 27, Singapore’s Business Times reported that the HSR project — touted to cost RM40 billion — is expected to miss its 2020 deadline by two years to 2022.

Citing unnamed sources, the business paper said 2022 may be a more realistic deadline as there are many unresolved issues in the mammoth project.

 

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on April 30, 2015.

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