KUALA LUMPUR – The Perikatan Nasional government wanted to select contractors and vendors for the now-cancelled Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High-Speed Rail (HSR) project through direct negotiations without intervention from the neighbouring country, said former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.
In a Facebook post yesterday evening, Najib said the current government had taken on a “different” approach to the project, which he had, during his tenure, deliberately wanted to ensure both countries were responsible in making it a success to reduce or avoid irregularities.
“The Singapore government also did not agree with the PN government’s request for the HSR train to end at KLIA (Kuala Lumpur International Airport).
“There, passengers will change trains belonging to YTL that are half the speed of the HSR to continue the trip to the city.
“I feel that this decision is very weird because the visitors from Singapore want a journey straight to Kuala Lumpur in the shortest time – not a stopover at KLIA to change to a much slower train.”
Najib said this after Singapore Transport Minister Ong Ye Kung had told the city-state's Parliament that the project had been cancelled as Malaysia did not want offers from contractors or the joint selection of train technology that was done via open tender and evaluated and monitored by Singapore.
“If visitors wanted to go to an airport to board a flight, they would go to their own airport,” Najib said.
He added that the project had not been cancelled due to Covid-19, as mentioned by PN.
“The PN government made the decision to extend the ERL train to Johor Baru as a medium-speed KL-Johor Baru HSR that is almost at the same cost as the KL-Singapore HSR that it cancelled.
“Since the operating companies will make continued losses as the lack of income and riders will drop from the inability to reach Singapore, the PN government also agreed to pay annual compensation to the ERL company.”
The KL-Singapore HSR project was called off on January 1 after both countries failed to reach an agreement and after its suspension period lapsed on December 31.
Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and his Singaporean counterpart, Lee Hsien Loong, said both governments could not come to an agreement over several changes proposed by Malaysia, despite discussions. – The Vibes, January 5, 2021
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