SINGAPORE - Both Malaysia's and Singapore's companies behind the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High Speed Rail (HSR) project have called for a joint tender for an assets company for the bilateral project, the firms said in a statement on Wednesday (Dec 20).
The assets company will be responsible for designing, building, financing and maintaining all rolling stock.
It will also be responsible for designing, building, financing, operating and maintaining all rail assets such as trackwork, power, signalling and telecommunications for the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore HSR.
Additionally, it will be in charge of coordinating the system's network capacity for operations and maintenance needs.
Slated to be completed by end-2026, the 350km Kuala Lumpur-Singapore HSR is expected to cut travel time between the two cities to 90 minutes.
Kuala Lumpur and Singapore signed an agreement last December to build and complete the HSR by 2026.
The railway line's seven stations in Malaysia are Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya, Seremban, Ayer Keroh, Muar, Batu Pahat and Iskandar Puteri, while the only station in Singapore will be at Jurong East.
Chief executive of MyHSR Corporation, Datuk Mohd Nur Ismal Mohamed Kamal, said the project is "a complex and extensive transport infrastructure project for both countries, which will generate huge socio-economic benefits arising from the increased connectivity and travel efficiencies".
"We are delighted with the progress thus far with the submission of the Section 4 Land Acquisition Act completed, ongoing Public Inspection for alignment within Malaysia, recently launched Project Delivery Partner and today's joint tender launch of the Assets Company. We welcome all interested parties to submit their best proposal for the Assets Company tender," he said.
His counterpart, SG HSR managing director Rama Venkta, said that the call for tender marks a major milestone for the game-changing project.
"We are heartened by the enthusiastic response from the market for the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore HSR so far. Their feedback at the two Industry Briefings has been valuable in helping us design the parameters of the Assets Company tender. We look forward to receiving high-quality competitive bids in the coming months," he said.
Bidders must submit proposals to MyHSR Corp, a unit under the Malaysian Ministry of Finance tasked with undertaking the rail project, and SG HSR by June 29 next year, the statement said.
A tender briefing will be held in KL on Jan 23.
The two corporations target to jointly select a qualified bidder by the end of next year.
All tender submissions will be evaluated for their technical solution, commercial robustness, financial sustainability and price.
