MALAYSIA gave its backing yesterday to a US$2.3 billion (RM8
billion) plan to build a bullet train between Kuala Lumpur and
neighbouring Singapore, saying that a study has shown the proposal
is feasible.
Property and utility firm YTL Corp Bhd has proposed to build and
run the train between the two capitals, cutting the journey to 90
minutes from today's glacial pace of seven-and-a-half hours along a
colonial-era rail corridor.
"We are for it," Transport Minister Datuk Seri Chan Kong Choy said
in an interview at his office in Putrajaya.
"We have allowed them (YTL) to do a feasibility study, which they
have done, and so they came back to us and said the project is
feasible," he added.
"So now the Government is conducting a social impact study because
it involves land acquisition."
The idea for a high-speed train between the two cities, spanning
about 300km, dates back to the late 1990s, but it came to the fore
last year after the Government invited companies to come up with
ideas for privately-funded projects.
YTL already runs an express train between Kuala Lumpur and the
city's international airport about 60km to the south.
YTL managing director Tan Sri Francis Yeoh Sock Ping welcomed the
Government's support for the proposal, but declined to give any
details.
"It's very feasible," he said by phone. "It's not difficult."
Chan said the plan will not involve any major government outlay on
basic infrastructure, merely facilitating the project by allowing
for land to be acquired and approvals granted, including
negotiations with Singapore.
"The Government thought that the project will be very beneficial,
particularly to the development of the southern part of the
peninsula," he said. "Having said that, we are very careful before
making the final decision." - Reuters
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