MYHSR, the Malaysian state-owned company leading the development of the Kuala Lumpur – Singapore high-speed project, has confirmed that seven local and international consortia comprising 31 firms “representing the full spectrum” of the project have submitted proposals under a Request for Information (RFI) exercise launched in July 2023.
Domestic and international groups were invited to submit proposals for the project based on a design-finance-build-operate transfer model under a public-private partnership (PPP). No details of the bidding parties were revealed in the statement released by MyHSR on January 15. However, local media reports suggest that no Japanese companies have submitted proposals for the project, as IRJ reported on January 11.
The original November deadline for submissions was pushed back to January 15 after more than 60% of firms requested additional time to compile their submissions. More than 700 companies attended a briefing session on the project in July.
“The findings from the RFI evaluation will be presented to the Ministry of Transport and the cabinet for deliberation,” says MyHSR chairman, Mr Haji Fauzi Bin Abdul Rahman.
“If the response is positive, we will move on to the second phase with the Request for Proposals (RFP) stage to obtain detailed proposals from the selected consortia.”
The project to construct the planned 350km/h high-speed line between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, which aims to offer a 1h 30min journey time, is expected to cost Ringgits 100bn ($US 21bn).
A similar scheme first proposed in 2013 and agreed between the Malaysian and Singaporean governments was dropped by the Malaysian government in January 2021 due to cost concerns. The subsequent administration decided to revive the project, but with an emphasis on private rather than state financing.
Sources from the Japanese companies were reported as believing that the project was too great a risk without financial support from the Malaysian government.
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