Tenders for High Speed Rail by late next year

By Jose Barrock

Tenders for the High Speed Rail linking Kuala Lumpur and Singapore are only likely to be out late next year, said Land Public Transport Commission chief executive officer Mohd Nur Kamal.

“Fastest by late next year… we cannot estimate how long it will take to negotiate with Singapore,” he said in a brief conversation with KiniBiz.

This quashes the market perception and reports stating that the tenders were likely to be out in the third quarter, or the later part of this year, for the multi-billion ringgit project.

Only about two weeks ago, news reports quoting Government officials had it that Putrajaya was finalising technical and engineering details and feasibility studies of the high-speed rail link between the two cities, with tenders expected by the end of the year. News articles also had it that a full report by the Government is expected to be ready by the end of July.

A market watcher added, “Negotiations with Singapore are likely to take a long time…it’s very unlikely that talks between the two countries can be ironed out so quickly. Late next year is a more realistic time frame,” he said.

Mohd Nur Kamal

Mohd Nur Kamal heads the Land Transport Commission which comes directly under the purview of Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and is tasked with drawing up policies, planning and regulating all aspects of train, bus and taxi services as well as road- and rail-based freight transport.

He added that other than negotiations with Singapore, the tenderers would likely take about six months to fine tune the details and specifications of the project as well as finalise their proposals.

Mohd Nur Kamal declined to state the projected costs, who the interested parties were, or how many companies or consortiums were eyeing the project.

“There is no shortage of interest, from both local and international players…but I will say it is a viable project and will put Malaysia on the map in terms of development and maturity,” he added.

News reports have the project as costing some US$12 billion with at least three bidders led by UEM Group, a company wholly-owned by state-controlled investment arm Khazanah Nasional, businessman Syed Mokhtar Albukhary’s MMC Corp and YTL Corp, which built and operates the express rail link to the KL International Airport, and mooted the high speed rail a few years ago.

Other companies likely to show interest are Gamuda, a company which has many projects partnering MMC Corp, IJM Corp, among the largest construction companies in the country and possibly WCT, another prominent local construction company.