KUALA LUMPUR – Datuk Seri Najib Razak has alleged that the Perikatan Nasional government may have cancelled the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High-Speed Rail project (HSR) and instead opted for a local one to benefit a crony.
The former prime minister in a Facebook post today said he was informed by top officials in Putrajaya that the government had agreed to launch a domestic KL-Johor Baru high-speed line with a similar overhead cost to a crony company linked to predecessor Dr Mahathir Mohamad, but did not disclose the name of the said firm.
“I have received information that the top officials in the PN government has already agreed to launch the KL-JB HSR to replace the KL-Singapore one with the same costs and has already chosen the technologies as well as name the Dr Mahathir-era crony company as the main contractors as well as the operating company without tender.
“The PN government has already planned to pay yearly compensation to the operating company since the HSR will not be profitable in the long run due to reduced passenger traffic and lowered fare revenue if Singapore is excluded.”
Meanwhile, official sources told Singapore’s Straits Times (ST) that Putrajaya’s wish to accelerate the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore HSR construction by two years, in a move to benefit local contractors, may have been among the reasons the project was terminated.
The paper reported today that Malaysia’s wish to quicken the construction process implied the removal of international tenders, and ensuring that the RM60 billion or more Putrajaya was ploughing in from public coffers would be mostly reaped by local contractors.
Companies from China, Japan and France had shown interest in bidding for the HSR contracts but the ST said should domestic tenders be called, they would likely have to form joint ventures with Malaysian partners.
A joint statement yesterday by Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and his Singaporean counterpart, Lee Hsien Loong, both governments could not come to an agreement over several changes proposed by Malaysia, despite discussions. This then led to the termination of the project as its suspension period had lapsed on December 31.
Prior to the termination, The Edge reported that Malaysia would continue with the HSR without Singapore, with the line ending in Johor Baru, and doing so would require the former to pay RM300 million compensation.
This is not the first time Malaysia would be paying compensation to Singapore over the project.
In July 2018, then Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan told Parliament that Singapore had already incurred costs including for consultancies to design civil infrastructure, manpower to oversee the project and also land acquisition.
Preliminary estimates then showed that costs might have exceeded SG$250 million (RM760 million) by the end of May 2018, Khaw said, adding that Singapore would continue to incur costs, more than SG$6 million in June, more than SG$6 million (RM18.26 million) in July, and at least SG$40 million (RM121.75 million) from August to the end of 2018.
When Singapore agreed to the suspension that Malaysia requested in August that year, more costs were incurred to compensate contractors for breaking contracts, and to fill back sites already excavated, for instance. Khaw told Parliament in October 2018 that Malaysia had agreed to reimburse Singapore SG$15 million (RM45.65 million) for these abortive costs, to be paid by end-January 2019.
ST said that on the cards is extending the existing Express Rail Link that connects Kuala Lumpur to the Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang to a potential station at Senai Airport, which serves Johor.
The move to cancel the HSR has received its fair share of criticism by politicians on both sides of the divide including the likes of former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who signed the deal in 2016, and former transport minister Anthony Loke and PKR chief Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
Stretching 350km, the HSR was to run from a terminal station in Bandar Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur to Jurong East in Singapore.
There would have been seven stations and expected to cut travel time between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore to 90 minutes, compared with over four hours by car and five hours end-to-end by air. – The Vibes, January 2, 2021
