The Ministry of Transport (MOT) has come out to contradict a report that originated from The Edge Financial Daily.

MOT said that Singapore and Malaysia are still in discussion over the commercial and operating models of the high-speed rail (HSR) linking Singapore and Kuala Lumpur.

This was after it was reported in the Malaysian press that both the Malaysian and Singaporean governments have reached a consensus on the alignment of the 330km to 350km high-speed rail (HSR) linking Kuala Lumpur to Singapore, and have decided on two services -- one being a direct service and another with transit stops in between.

MOT said on Jan. 4, 2016, this plan was still being discussed, alongside other issues, such as finalising the alignment of the rail services that cuts through both countries only after conducting detailed engineering studies.

The ministry also said that both countries are studying the feedback gathered from a request-for-information (RFI) exercise that concluded in December 2015.

This RFI exercise was to gauge interest in the project by the populace.

However, one thing so far is definitely clear: Commercial interest in the project is high as the construction costs of the project is expected to run into the tens of billions of dollars, drawing the attention advances of foreign contractors.

According to The Edge Financial Daily:

Due to the high contract values, there has also been much lobbying by the Japanese and Chinese HSR players, both angling for the potentially large lucrative job. In the background, the South Koreans are also jostling for the large-scale job, while a clutch of European companies are understood to be setting up a consortium, also eyeing the job.

In a presentation by China Railway in December last year, the price tag of the Kuala Lumpur to Singapore HSR was pegged at RM70 billion, up from RM65 billion a few months ago, and up from a price tag of RM40 billion in May.

Questions over the supposedly high price tag have been raised lately, as about nine years ago, in 2007, conglomerate YTL and its technical partner, Germany’s Siemens AG, put in a proposal to build the HSR or bullet train linking Kuala Lumpur to Singapore at a cost of only RM8 billion. How the price of the HSR has escalated to the current level of RM70 billion is not clear.

The only details that have been confirmed so far is that the rail's Singapore terminus will be located in Jurong East and the completion date will not be by 2020.

This initial target for completion has been reassessed due to the scale and complexity of the project.

Top photo via Schristia via Flickr

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