KL-Singapore bullet train on hold
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The proposed RM8 billion (US$2.5 billion) Kuala Lumpur-Singapore bullet train project has been put on hold due to the high cost.
“The Government will not go ahead with the project because the financial model submitted involves a significant cost to be borne by the Government,” Bernama quoted Malaysia’s Economic Planning Unit Director-General Sulaiman Mahbob as saying.
The report said he did not reveal how much the Government would have to bear or provide other details.
The train was proposed two years by YTL Corp Bhd, capable of travelling at 350kph and cutting the travelling time between the two cities to 90 minutes.
According to Bernama, YTL managing director Francis Yeoh had earlier said that it was an environmentally friendly project and would save the Government “tens of billions of ringgit” in fuel subsidies in the long term.
News of the shelving of the rail link came shortly after MalaysianPrime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said several infrastructure projects under the RM200 billion 2006-2010 development plan may be delayed due to escalating costs.
High on the list is the RM$3 billion bridge linking the northern island of Penang to peninsular Malaysia.
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