KUALA LUMPUR • Some 14 companies have been invited to present their ideas for the Kuala Lumpur- Singapore high-speed rail (HSR) project, the chairman of Malaysia's Land Public Transport Commission (Spad) said yesterday.

The companies approached included Chinese transport firm China Railway, the New Straits Times reported Tan Sri Syed Hamid Albar as saying at the China High Speed Railway symposium held in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

Dr Syed Hamid said the 14 companies approached were from a shortlist of 98 submissions received under a recent request for information exercise conducted by the Spad and Singapore's Land Transport Authority (LTA) for the HSR development.

The Spad and LTA said last month that the 98 respondents came from across the HSR value chain. More than half of the respondents were from Europe, with East Asia accounting for the next biggest group, The Straits Times had reported.

Dr Syed Hamid yesterday noted that there was "strong interest from China" for the HSR development. "We have seen Chinese contribution to our country but the rest is all left to competition," he told the symposium.

The HSR was first announced by Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and his Malaysian counterpart Najib Razak in 2013.

It is expected to cut travel time between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore to 90 minutes.

Singapore and Malaysia expect to finalise the commercial model and procurement approach of the project by next year.