Sources revealed that the government of Malaysia and Singapore have agreed to postpone the High Speed Rail (HSR) connecting the city-state with Kuala Lumpur for two years until 31 May 2020, reported The Edge.
They said the deal was reached “in a spirit of good neighbourliness”, with Singapore acknowledging that not deferring the construction of the RM110 billion (S$37 billion) rail project would be a huge burden for Malaysia’s government given its debt of over RM1 trillion (S$335 billion).
Moreover, there will be no financial penalty to Malaysia for deferring the HSR, even though the agreement inked in 2016 has no provisions covering such delay. Previously, it was estimated that Malaysia would need to pay RM500 million to Singapore if the large-scale rail project was cancelled.
“The terms of agreement [for the project] are such that if we decide to drop the project, it will cost us a lot of money,” said Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad in May.
Last week, Economic Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Azmin Ali met with Singapore Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan. One of the issues they discussed was the HSR, and they said that Singapore and Malaysia will soon announce a mutually beneficial deal on the massive rail project.
“We are inching closer towards a win-win deal on the HSR, thanks to the hard work of officials from both sides,” Azmin tweeted on Thursday (30 Aug).
Image sourced from My News Hub
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