By Sharen Kaur
Published in NST on August 9 2011
National railway company Keretapi Tanah Melayu Bhd (KTMB) aims to work on the Haramain high-speed rail project in Saudi Arabia to gain expertise so it could undertake a similar project here.
The US$6 billion (RM18.06 billion) Haramain project involves a 450km rail link between Makkah (Mecca) and Madinah. The project has commenced and is expected to be completed by end-2012.
KTMB president Dr Aminuddin Adnan said it has sent several staff to the project site to lobby for contracts.
"We believe with the expertise and exposure gained, we will be ready when Malaysia decides to implement its own high-speed rail project from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore.
"We want to grab the opportunity to work on the high-speed project," Aminuddin said in an interview with Business Times recently in Kuala Lumpur.
The KL-Singapore high-speed rail job, estimated to cost RM8 billion to RM14 billion, will stretch about 400km and reduce travel time to 90 minutes from the current seven hours.
YTL Corp Bhd first mooted the idea to build a high-speed rail in the late 1990s, and then, in 2006. The project was put on hold in April 2008 due to high cost to the government, estimated at about RM8 billion.
By the middle of 2009, YTL again revived talk on the project and expressed hope that the government would relook at the proposal.
In 2010, Malaysia made a proposal to revive the project.
Performance Management and Delivery Unit director Ahmad Suhaili said recently that a pre-feasibility study for the rail project will be concluded on August 19 and submitted to the Cabinet for approval.
Ahmad said the study would allow the government to decide on the corridors and stations to be located between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.
Published in NST on August 9 2011
National railway company Keretapi Tanah Melayu Bhd (KTMB) aims to work on the Haramain high-speed rail project in Saudi Arabia to gain expertise so it could undertake a similar project here.
The US$6 billion (RM18.06 billion) Haramain project involves a 450km rail link between Makkah (Mecca) and Madinah. The project has commenced and is expected to be completed by end-2012.
KTMB president Dr Aminuddin Adnan said it has sent several staff to the project site to lobby for contracts.
"We believe with the expertise and exposure gained, we will be ready when Malaysia decides to implement its own high-speed rail project from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore.
"We want to grab the opportunity to work on the high-speed project," Aminuddin said in an interview with Business Times recently in Kuala Lumpur.
The KL-Singapore high-speed rail job, estimated to cost RM8 billion to RM14 billion, will stretch about 400km and reduce travel time to 90 minutes from the current seven hours.
YTL Corp Bhd first mooted the idea to build a high-speed rail in the late 1990s, and then, in 2006. The project was put on hold in April 2008 due to high cost to the government, estimated at about RM8 billion.
By the middle of 2009, YTL again revived talk on the project and expressed hope that the government would relook at the proposal.
In 2010, Malaysia made a proposal to revive the project.
Performance Management and Delivery Unit director Ahmad Suhaili said recently that a pre-feasibility study for the rail project will be concluded on August 19 and submitted to the Cabinet for approval.
Ahmad said the study would allow the government to decide on the corridors and stations to be located between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.
No comments:
Post a Comment