THE Pakatan Harapan (PH) government will look for ways to reduce the penalty it has to pay for breaking Malaysia’s contract to build the High-Speed Rail (HSR) to Singapore, Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad told The Edge.

Dr Mahathir acknowledged in an interview with the business weekly that dropping the project would cost Malaysia “a lot of money”, although the project has neither begun nor have contracts been given out.

“We have entered into an agreement with Singapore. If we break the agreement we have to pay a very large sum of money.

“So we are going to find out how we can reduce the amount of money we have to pay for breaking the agreement,” the PH chairman said when asked if the government was going to scale down the project.

The RM60 billion Kuala Lumpur-Singapore HSR project was mooted under the Najib Razak administration and aims to cut travel time between both cities to 90 minutes.

In April, it was reported that a consortium between the Malaysian Resources Corporation Bhd-Gamuda Bhd had been selected for the northern portion of the rail works, while Syarikat Pembenaan Yeoh Tiong Lay Sdn Bhd-TH Properties Sdn Bhd consortium (YTL-THP) had been selected for the southern portion.

But the contracts would only be awarded upon the completion of negotiations.

Dr Mahathir reiterated that the government would renegotiate the terms for the East Coast Rail Line project where work had already started.

“Yes, we are renegotiating the terms, the terms are very damaging to our economy. The market should be happy that we are strengthening the government’s finances.” – May 26, 2018.