SINGAPOREAN diplomats and observers are hopeful that the high-speed rail link project will continue under Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s new government, TodayOnline reports.

There might be delays or revisions to ongoing bilateral projects such as the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High-Speed Rail (HSR) and the Rapid Transit System (RTS) Link with Johor Baru, but they said it was highly unlikely that these projects would be called off as these projects would be beneficial to Malaysians.

Ong Keng Yong, a former Singapore high commissioner to Malaysia, said “many aspects of the HSR agreements have already been discussed (and agreed upon) between Malaysia and Singapore over the last two years”.

The HSR and RTS Link were projects inked between former prime minister Najib Razak and Singapore PM Lee Hsien Loong, after years of frosty ties during the Dr Mahathir administration.

As prime minister now, Dr Mahathir has pledged to review all mega projects to see their benefit to Malaysia, and this has Singapore observers worried a review would include the HSR.

Singapore University of Social Sciences’ Park Byung Joon, an urban transport expert, said it while it would “not be a nice thing” to cancel the project, the new Malaysian government might just be giving it lower priority.

Dr Mustafa Izzuddin from the Iseas-Yusof Ishak Institute noted that cancellation of the project would incur huge financial penalties.

The project could instead be stalled, “until the contract’s terms and conditions are renegotiated to the liking of the Pakatan government,” he said.

The tenders for the design, construction, finance and maintenance of the HSR were called last December, with the entire project between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur to be completed and running by Dec 31, 2026.

As for the Johor Baru-Singapore RTS Link, Park said a substantial portion of the project would involve work on Singapore’s side and so would be less impacted by the change of government. – May 13, 2018.