MALAYSIA will scrap the high-speed railway (HSR) project linking Malaysia and Singapore, said Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

“It is the final decision,” said Dr Mahathir after chairing a meeting at the Bersatu head office in Petaling Jaya.

He was responding to a question on whether he had cancelled the HSR project.

Dr Mahathir said it would take time to finalise the final points as there was an existing agreement with the Singapore government.

The 92-year-old said the penalty to terminate the agreement was around RM500 million.

“It is not a beneficial project (for Malaysia) and it will cost us a huge sum of money. We will make no money at all from this and it’s only a short track.

“It will only save people one hour,” he added.

The 350km railway project, which was mooted by the Barisan Nasional government, is estimated to cost RM110 billion. The project linking Kuala Lumpur and Singapore is expected to begin operations from 2026.

The project is being undertaken by MyHSR Corp Sdn Bhd and is a joint venture between MRCB, Gamuda, Syarikat Pembinaan Yeoh Tiong Lay Sdn Bhd, and Tabung Haji unit TH Properties.

He said the details would come later as Malaysia still needed to discuss the matter with Singapore, as there was a binding agreement between the two countries.

Meanwhile, Dr Mahathir said the government will review companies set up by the previous government deemed unnecessary.

“Many of these bodies were established not for the government, but for Barisan Nasional. It used the government’s money to pay salaries,” he said.

Last week, the government decided to abolish Pemandu, SPAD, and Talentcorp, and terminated the services of 17,000 contract workers.

The government, however, will absorb SPAD’s employees and lower-ranked contract staff into the Road Transport Department. – May 28, 2018.