MALAYSIA still plans on continuing with the High Speed Rail (HSR) project linking Kuala Lumpur to Singapore but at a lower cost, said Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Responding to questions on Bandar Malaysia, the prime minister said the new development hub in central Kuala Lumpur will have its own HSR station.

“It (Bandar Malaysia) will have a HSR station although we haven’t decided on the actual project itself. 

“It will go ahead but we have to find out the most suitable speed we should have. It’s not necessary for it to go 400km per hour because it might reach Alor Star,” he told reporters in Putrajaya today.

The HSR, shelved for two years due to its prohibitive RM110 billion cost, will be coming up again for bilateral discussion between Malaysia and Singapore on May 31.

Earlier Dr Mahathir witnessed the signing ceremony between government-owned TRX City Sdn Bhd and Iskandar Waterfront Holdings Sdn Bhd (IWH) and China Railway Engineering Corporation (M) Sdn Bhd (CREC) to develop Bandar Malaysia. 

The joint venture by IWH-CREC was aborted after the previous government cancelled the agreement in 2017.

Dr Mahathir said the costs for the HSR project was still too high and needed to be scaled back.

“We would like to spend less money as it is very expensive. Maybe, we can scale down and do some adjustments to reduce the cost. Maybe less speed can cut the costs,” he added.

Meanwhile, the Finance Ministry has yet to finalise the other details of the JV for IWH-CREC to develop Bandar Malaysia.

When asked on a number of issues, Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng told reporters that the details were being worked on.

“The broad details on the advance payment and the 50-50 share on land sales have already been said in my speech. We are still discussing other details,” said Lim.

Lim was responding to questions about the payments IWH-CREC will have to make to the government, whether tax incentives would be given to the developers and when construction would begin.

On the Bandar Malaysia construction, Dr Mahathir said he hoped that IWH-CREC will start work “very soon”.

“I told them to start immediately as I want to see it myself. Twenty years more and I will be busy,” said the 94-year-old.

But Lim added: “Maybe not immediately as they still need to get the relevant approvals”. – December 17, 2019.