KL-Singapore high-speed rail draws response from 150 firms to info request

KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 19): A total of 150 companies and consortia have responded to the request for information (RFI) exercise on the multi-billion ringgit Kuala Lumpur-Singapore high-speed rail (HSR) project, whose submission is still open till Nov 18, 2015.

In a joint statement today, the Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) and Singapore’s Land Transport Authority (LTA) said these companies and consortia come from across the HSR value chain and include entities based in Malaysia, Singapore, Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East and North America.

SPAD chief executive officer (CEO) Mohd Azharuddin Mat Sah and his Singaporean counterpart Chew Men Leong said both entities are by the market’s positive response to the RFI exercise.

"We look forward to receiving their feedback next month. This feedback will be critical in helping us with the commercial model of the project, and will help ensure that this project starts off on the right note,” they said.

The RFI exercise is expected to be concluded by the end of the year.

On Oct 7, SPAD and LTA had announced the launch of the RFI to gauge market interest in, and industry opinion on the commercial, as well as technical aspects of the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore HSR project.

The feedback received will inform the on-going bilateral discussions and formal tender process subsequently, the statement had read.

The Kuala Lumpur-Singapore HSR link was first announced by Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and his Singaporean counterpart Lee Hsien Loong at the Malaysia-Singapore Leaders’ Retreat in February 2013.

With terminus stations in Kuala Lumpur’s Bandar Malaysia and Singapore’s Jurong East, the HSR link aims to cut the travel time between the two cities to 90 minutes. SPAD had reportedly said Malaysia plans to dish out work packages for the 330km-rail project by 2017 at the earliest, with completion set for 2022.