The Multi-Billion-Dollar Railway Project Between Malaysia And Singapore Canceled Over Disagreements
The highly anticipated super-fast rail link between the two neighboring countries Singapore and Malaysia has been called off, confirmed by the officials on Friday.
The multi-billion-dollar project that was going to connect Malaysia’s capital Kuala Lumpur with Singapore has been abandoned due to disagreements from both sides.
The joint statement was also revealed that after the pandemic hit the nation’s economy, Malaysia proposed some changes in the project but both the countries failed to agree on the matter. Malaysia will now have to reimburse the cost that has already been spent on the project to Singapore, revealed the city-state’s transport ministry in another statement.
The deadline for the long-troubled project was December 31st for the second time. After the deadline, both parties announced the suspension of the project. The rail link scheme was agreed upon in 2013. In June they decided to put the project on hold due to disagreement on costs. Now the whole plan is suspended completely.
The high-speed rail line between the two countries was supposed to cover 350 kilometers and would have lowered the traveling time to 90 minutes compared to the current time by car, which is four hours. The flight between the two countries takes about an hour minus the airport check-in and security time. The railway service was supposed to start in 2026.
In the joint statement, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said that due to the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, ‘Government of Malaysia had proposed several changes to the HSR project.’ The statement read that after a series of discussions regarding the changes both the government were not able to come to an agreement.
Malaysian Economy Minister Mustapa Mohamed said in a statement that to revitalize the Malaysian economy, battered by the pandemic, the government there asked for some alterations in the project structure, alignment, station design, and move forward the construction by two years. They also proposed more ad open financing options such as public-private partnerships and delayed payments.
The administration of the former prime minister of Malaysia Mahathir Mohamad decided to terminate the project because the economy of the country struggled with more than 1 trillion ringgit ($249 billion) of debts. The PM resigned back in February. The country now has to pay S$15 million ($11.4 million) to Singapore as compensation.
Mahathir Mohamad once said that the entire project would cost the country around 110 billion ringgit.
The joint statement read that both countries will follow the rules and the decisions made by the committee and will move forward according to the agreement, ‘resulting from this termination of the HSR Agreement’.
Mohamed revealed that Malaysia is now open to all possible options for the railway project and they are thinking about keeping it within the country. As per the local Malaysian media, the government wants to end the railway track in the country’s southern city of Johor Bahru instead of in Singapore.
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