ANTHONY Loke wants Putrajaya to be transparent on how much compensation will be paid to Singapore after the termination of the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High-Speed Rail (HSR) project.

In a statement, the former transport minister said the government must make public the compensation the way the previous Pakatan Harapan government had when it announced the compensations paid for the delayed HSR and RTS projects.

“The government must be transparent and announce to the people how much must be paid to Singapore, and what is the total cost spent by the MyHSR company, which has been shouldered by taxpayers since 2016,” he said.

Malaysia and Singapore yesterday announced they have terminated the contract to build the HSR, which would have linked the two countries, after failing to reach an agreement on proposed changes to the project.

Malaysia’s Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin and his Singapore counterpart Lee Hsien Long issued a joint statement announcing the end of the deal after the expiry of the project suspension period yesterday.

“In light of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the Malaysian economy, the government of Malaysia had proposed several changes to the HSR project,” they said in the statement.

“Both governments had conducted several discussions with regard to these changes and had not been able to reach an agreement. Therefore, the HSR agreement has lapsed on December 31, 2020

In a separate statement, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Mustapa Mohamad said the government will study its options, including the viability of making HSR a domestic project.

Commenting on this, Loke said there is no need for a local HSR from Kuala Lumpur to Johor as there is already a KTM rail line linking both cities.

He said work on the RM10 billion double-tracking project from Gemas, Negri Sembilan to Johor Baru is in progress and once completed, can serve as KTM’s Electric Train Service (ETS).

“Even though the ETS is not as fast as the HSR, to me, it is sufficient for domestic service.

“The government only needs to ensure enough trains to increase frequency,” the Seremban MP said in the statement. – January 1, 2021.