Parliament: Talks on Kuala Lumpur- Singapore high speed rail link back on track

KUALA LUMPUR: Proposed talks have been scheduled next month between Malaysia and Singapore to get the Kuala Lumpur- Singapore high speed rail link back on track said Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Nancy Shukri.

She said that the talks, which had been initially set for October, was postponed for December instead.

"The two way negotiations between Malaysia and Singapore on the high speed rail will centre around technical and legal issues including financing and policies," she said when answering a question raised by Wong Chen (PKR-Kelana Jaya) in Dewan Rakyat on Wednesday.

However, she said finer details of the proposed rail link were still not finalised pending the two-way discussion between Malaysia and Singapore.

To a supplementary question by Wee Ka Siong (BN- Ayer Hitam), Nancy said the rail link would pass through Klang Valley, Negeri Sembilan, Malacca and Johor on its way to Singapore.

Wee suggested that proper engineering planning is done to ensure the feasibility of project to avoid technical problems such as that affecting the earlier proposed Kunming-Singapore Railway link.

Earlier this year, Malaysia and Singapore announced plans for the rail link, which is expected to cut land-travelling time between the two countries to just 90 minutes.

The project, targeted to be completed by 2020, is reported to cost about RM40bil.

Several local and foreign firms have been reported to have started talks to form consortiums to bid for the project.

The firms are MMC Corp Bhd, which may team up with Gamuda Bhd and Chinese and European system integrators and YTL Corp Bhd with Spanish bullet train maker Talgo or CAF.