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Singapore is ready to study proposals from Malaysia to restart the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High Speed Rail (HSR) project, Minister for Transport S Iswaran said.

He made this announcement at a press conference on Thursday (May 11) with his Malaysian counterpart Anthony Loke after visiting the Johor Bahru-Singapore Rapid Transit System (RTS) Link project site in Johor Bahru (JB).

Ready to study any proposal

The two transport ministers had discussed the development of HSR during their meeting, Loke said, answering a question raised by a journalist.

Loke said any revival to the project must be based on a "private sector-led initiative", a "principle" the Malaysian government has made clear.

"There are several private companies (from Malaysia) that have expressed interest to carry out this project," Loke said. "But we have to investigate the model of implementation and the model of funding."

"We are open to suggestions and proposals from the private sector and likewise I think that we have to continue to engage each other and to further discuss the way forward on this particular project."

Adding on to Loke's statement, Iswaran said "we remain open and ready to work with the government of Malaysia to study any new proposal" related to the HSR.

"I took the opportunity to underscore again Singapore's readiness to study any proposal from Malaysia on how the HSR project can be restarted," he added.

Background

Malaysia and Singapore signed a legally binding bilateral agreement on the HSR project in December 2016, but the project was suspended in 2018 at Malaysia's request, following the election of the first Pakatan Harapan government, with Mahathir Mohamad as Prime Minister.

The development of HSR was supposed to be suspended for about two years, and Malaysia reimbursed Singapore S$15 million for costs incurred by the deferment.

In December 2020, the project was terminated after both countries failed to reach an agreement on proposed changes to the HSR project.

In January 2021, Malaysia paid about S$102 million to Singapore as compensation. Singapore spent about S$270 million on HSR's development.

In December 2022, former deputy transport minister Aziz Kaprawi urged Loke to investigate why the HSR project was cancelled, denouncing the decision to terminate it as "stupid".

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Top image by Daras Singh.