The revived Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High-Speed Rail (HSR) will not involve Japanese firms, who have opted out of the project.
According to Kyodo News, Japanese companies like the Japan East Railway Co. had initially weighed up submitting a bid for the project — a proposal which would have seen the HSR utilise the Shinkansen bullet train system.
However, they eventually decided that participation in the HSR would be too risky without financial support from the Malaysian government, reported Kyodo News, citing sources from both the Malaysian and Japanese governments.
The Malaysian government plans to promote the project — expected to cost RM100 billion (S$28.68 billion) — through private financing rather than government spending or extending debt guarantees.
Jan. 15, 2024, is the deadline for bids to be submitted.
When asked on Friday (Jan. 12) about Kyodo News' report on the Japanese firms dropping out, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim was quoted by the Malay Mail as saying that he would have to review it before commenting further.
KL-Singapore high speed rail project receives seven concept proposals
Seven local and international consortia, comprising 31 firms that represent the full spectrum of the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High Speed Rail (KL-SG HSR) project, have submitted concept proposals to MyHSR Corporation on Jan 15, the deadline for submissions.
The submission of concept proposals for the KL-SG HSR project was in response to the request for information (RFI) exercise that MyHSR Corp launched in July 2023 to invite local and international players from the private sector to deliver the project based on a public-private partnership initiative on the Design-Finance-Build-Operate-Transfer (DFBOT) model.
The 350 km-long KL-SG HSR was first mooted in 2013 before a binding agreement was signed in Dec 2016 with a target to have the line operational by 2026. The project was postponed and eventually scrapped officially in Jan 2021 under a subsequent Malaysian government. Singapore received compensation of more than $102 million for costs incurred.
“The findings from the RFI evaluation will be presented to the Ministry of Transport and the Cabinet for deliberation,” says MyHSR Corp chairman Haji Fauzi Bin Abdul Rahman.
“If the response is positive, we will move on to the second phase with the request for proposal (RFP) stage to obtain detailed proposals from the selected consortia, he adds.
