Source : The Business Times, April 23, 2008
KUALA LUMPUR - A proposed multi-billion dollar high speed train linking Kuala Lumpur to Singapore is off the cards due to exorbitant project costs, according to Malaysian press reports on Wednesday.
The decision by Malaysia's Economic Planning Unit, which evaluates and helps implement key projects within the country, comes less than a week after both countries said they were exploring the possibility of the link.
'The Government will not go ahead with the project because the financial model submitted involves a significant cost to be borne by the government,' the Unit's director general Sulaiman Mahbob told the Star daily.
The paper said he did not reveal how much the government would have had to bear.
The RM8 billion (US$2.6 billion) train project proposed by Malaysian property and utility firm YTL Corp in 2006 envisaged top speeds of 350kmh, cutting journey time from about seven hours to 90 minutes.
YTL's managing director Francis Yeoh had earlier said the new train would save the government 'tens of billions of ringgit' in fuel subsidies in the long term, the paper reported.
Last week, Malaysian Foreign Minister Rais Yatim and his Singapore counterpart George Yeo agreed to study the possibility of the train link.
Mr Yeo said the two sides decided to set up a joint ministerial committee to explore the proposal after Rais raised the issue with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
It takes about five hours to drive between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. -- AFP
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