Six contracts have been awarded for reference design consultants for the upcoming Kuala Lumpur- Singapore High-Speed Rail (HSR).

The contracts were given last month by MyHSR - a unit under the Malaysian Ministry of Finance tasked with undertaking the rail project - to Jacobs Engineering Services, Ranhill Consulting, HSS Integrated, Aecom, as well as a consortium made up of engineering firms Systra and Meinhardt.

The firms are expected to provide consultancy services in the designing of stations and other infrastructure such as bridges and tunnels.

Aecom will provide reference design for infrastructure within Malaysia from the south of Iskandar Puteri station in Johor to the border between Singapore and Malaysia.

In February, the American firm won a $24.6 million contract to conduct an advanced engineering study for the Singapore stretch of the railway, awarded by the Land Transport Authority.

Systra and Meinhardt won two contracts: one for the Bandar Malaysia and Iskandar Putri stations, in Kuala Lumpur and Johor respectively, and the other for reference design works from the Bandar Malaysia station to the border between Selangor and Negeri Sembilan.

"This is a very prestigious project that all the world's major engineering companies want to work on and we are honoured to have been selected," said Systra chief executive officer Pierre Verzat.

Meinhardt Group chief executive officer Omar Shahzad said: "We are excited to be working with Systra and other partners to undertake this iconic transportation project in South-east Asia."

Headquartered in France, Systra is now working on about 3,000 rail projects worldwide. Meinhardt - which is based in Singapore - has 45 offices globally and has had a hand in numerous projects locally, including the Marina Bay Financial Centre and Gardens by the Bay.

The 350km Kuala Lumpur-Singapore HSR is slated to be completed by end-2026 and cut travel time between the two cities to 90 minutes.