Loke: Firms allowed access to HSR project-related reports

PUTRAJAYA: Companies taking part in the Request For Information (RFI) exercise for the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High-Speed Rail (KL-S’pore HSR) project could have access to documents and studies that have been carried out previously, says the Transport Minister.

The RFI, said Anthony Loke, was carried out to ask companies on the project’s feasibility via a public-private partnership model.

“We are open to any company.

“So, that is why the RFI is being conducted. The RFI is basically to ask for any proposal from any private company on the feasibility of implementing the HSR project based on the public-private partnership (PPP model).

“By having the RFI, of course, we can have more detailed proposals,” he said, adding that a few companies had approached the ministry to show their interest.

“With the RFIs, they can access documents that have been conducted by MyHSR Corporation Sdn Bhd (MyHSR Corp) and studies that have been done before.

“They can purchase those reports but with conditions of non-disclosure agreements,” he said, adding that the companies could make use of these to study and come up with a proposal through MyHSR Corp.

“From there, we will proceed to see how feasible the project can be undertaken by the private sector,” he said, adding that it was just at the feasibility stage and “we are not going to award anything yet”.

On which companies had shown interest, Loke said a few had been mentioned in the media.

“But I do not want to pre-empt any particular company. Our role is to gather information and proposals. At the end of the day, the evaluation and assessment will be conducted by our professionals in MyHSR Corp,” he said.

Earlier, Loke said public university students could start to apply for the RM300 domestic airfare subsidy to travel between peninsula, Sabah, Sarawak and Labuan from Aug 15.

“This is expected to benefit over 56,000 public higher learning institutions students with an estimated expenditure of RM16.8mil.”

It will be implemented through the issuance of credit shells, with participating airlines providing digital vouchers worth RM300 to each eligible student to be redeemed when buying the flight tickets.

Among the terms and conditions are that they must be citizens studying in public universities in 2023, and are from Sabah, Sarawak or Labuan (based on their permanent address) and studying in the peninsula or vice versa.

Those from Sabah, who are studying in Sarawak or Labuan, or vice versa can also apply.

The voucher is only valid for the purchase of a one-way or round-trip economy class ticket from Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia, Batik Air, Firefly and MYAirline.

While the deadline for redeeming the voucher is Oct 31 this year, purchasing for travel after this date is allowed.

If the purchased ticket is less than RM300, the remaining balance will be stored in the credit shell for future ticket purchases.