KUALA LUMPUR: There is no decision yet on whether the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High-Speed Rail (HSR) will be revived since discussions on the project are still at the early stages.
Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Economy) Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamad said the project was cancelled after the bilateral agreement lapsed on Dec 31, 2020.
However, during a meeting between Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob and his Singapore counterpart Lee Hsien Loong in September a proposal to renegotiate the project was raised, the minister added.
"In response, the Singapore prime minister had stated that he was open to receive fresh proposals from Malaysia on the HSR project."
"I would like to stress that the possibility of reviving the KL-Singapore HSR project is still in the early stages of discussion," Mustapa said in reply to questions by Lim Guan Eng (Bagan-DAP) who wanted to know more about the said project during the question and answer session in the Dewan Rakyat today.
Among the questions raised by Lim were whether the KL-Johor Baru HSR project would be cancelled and replaced with the KL-Singapore HSR project; how much were the costs of the two projects, and whether negotiations with Singapore would ensure a reduction in the estimated cost by half from RM100 billion.
Mustapa said reducing the KL-Singapore HSR project's cost to RM50 billion was yet to be brought up during the discussions.
"Based on estimates made by Malaysia, under the model being proposed, namely HSR 2.0 (latest version), the project cost is far lower than the proposed costs for HSR 1.0 and HSR 2.0 (earlier version)," he said.
The minister said the model structure under HSR 1.0 and 2.0 included the establishment of AssetCo, a private entity to be overseen jointly by the governments of Malaysia and Singapore.
"The company functions as the owner of the rail system and assets with the responsibility of building, financing and maintaining the system and assets as well as carrying out the procurement and maintenance of the rolling stock.
"Under the HSR 2.0 model submitted to Singapore, Malaysia proposed to abolish AssetCo. Singapore did not agree with the proposal. With that, the bilateral agreement signed on Dec 13, 2016, was terminated," he said.
He said with the cancellation of the KL-Singapore HSR, the Malaysian government decided to conduct a feasibility study on a KL-Iskandar Puteri HSR project.
Mustapa said the study, which started in February this year, had been completed and would be presented to the Cabinet soon to decide on the next move.
The findings would include which line could have a larger economic spillover, the Jeli MP said, adding that both lines were economically feasible.
He also explained that since 2013, all negotiations involving the HSR project had been led by the minister for economy in the Prime Minister's Department and the economic affairs minister.
He noted that in mid-2020, the Cabinet had decided that he should helm the negotiations to finalise the project with Singapore.
"At this time, the government is still in the process of transferring MyHSR Corporation, the special purpose vehicle established to negotiate technical matters involving the HSR project, from the purview of the Prime Minister's Department to the Transport Ministry.
"Therefore, all further discussions and negotiations on the project's direction will be handled by the Transport Ministry," Mustapa said.
