http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v7/bu/newsbusiness.php?id=978108
Proposed High-speed Rail Link To Be Finalised At Next Year's Leaders' Retreat
SINGAPORE, Sept 17 (Bernama) -- The proposed High-Speed Rail Link connecting Singapore and Kuala Lumpur is expected to be considered and finalised during the Leaders' Retreat early next year, says Malaysian High Commissioner to Singapore Datuk Husni Zai Yaacob.
He said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and his Singapore counterpart Lee Hsien Loong, who meet annually at the Leaders' Retreat, are scheduled to meet again early next year in Kuala Lumpur.
At their last retreat here in February, both leaders announced their agreement to embark on the project, which upon completion in 2020, will reduce travelling time between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore to only 90 minutes.
"The high-speed train plan is now in its initial stage where technical studies are being conducted by the Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD).
"SPAD said they are analysing the technical studies and hopefully by the end of this year, they will meet their counterpart to discuss technical aspects of the high-speed rail," Husni Zai told Bernama in an interview.
He explained, the project was very technical in nature.
"This is because it involved two countries, you have to know first the alignment, the stations and of course the border, which routes to be taken, in terms of costing and sharing of cost.
"So there are a lot of aspects, before we can finalise the plans and bring forward to the leaders at their upcoming retreat in Malaysia.
"Hopefully by the next Leaders' Retreat, we would be able to come up with some considerations and a decision, said Husni Zai.
Touching on the progress of the Rapid Transit System linking Johor Bahru and Singapore, he said: "The RTS is also on-going, the technical aspects of it are still being looked into by both authorities".
Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Abdul Wahid Omar will attend the Joint Ministerial Committee (JMC) meeting for Iskandar Malaysia in Singapore on October 18.
There are five working groups for the committee which would brief and update the JMC on latest developments including the RTS.
-- BERNAMA