CHINA has put together its biggest ever railway team to bid for the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High-Speed Rail (HSR) project, Chinese financial magazine Caixin reported.

The Beijing-based publication said the strong line-up led by China Railway Corporation (CRC) will include China Railway Group Ltd, China Railway Construction Cooperation, China Communication Construction, CRRC Corporation Ltd, China Railway Signal & Communication Corporation Ltd, China Investment Cooperation and The Export-Import Bank of China.

The consortium is reported to have all the necessary players dealing with construction, vehicles, high-speed rail communications and operations, and financing.

The team may include more firms as it works on its bid and compete against other interested parties from Germany, France, Japan and South Korea for the HSR job, the report said.

Caixin also reported that a CRC source had said the corporation’s deputy general manager Huang Min was leading the project.

Bids are to be submitted by June 29 next year. The winning bid will be announced by the end of 2018.

The HSR is a 350km joint-venture between Malaysia and Singapore. The railway will reduce travel time between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur to 90 minutes.

The project is expected to spur economic growth in several areas along the route.

MYHSR Corporation Sdn Bhd (MyHSR Corp) called for a tender to appoint the project delivery partner (PDP) for the HSR project late last month.

The PDP would develop the project’s detailed infrastructure design, including the stations and alignment structures within Malaysia, and construct them according to the budget and in a timely fashion.

Last week, Malaysia and Singapore called a joint tender for an assets company (AssetsCo) for the HSR project.

AssetsCo will supply the systems and trains, and coordinate operations in the HSR network. – December 26, 2017.