S’pore-KL HSR among potential projects: Surbana Jurong

The Singapore-Kuala Lumpur high-speed rail (HSR) is the type of project that the new Surbana Jurong group would gun for following its S$400 million acquisition of Australian infrastructure player SMEC, chairman Liew Mun Leong said.

“Of course, for anything major, we will have the appetite for it,” Mr Liew told reporters yesterday when he was asked whether the firm is looking to participate in the HSR project.

Mr Andy Goodwin, SMEC’s chief executive and managing director, added that the HSR project is one that can play to the two firms’ complementary strengths. “This is another prime example of our complementary services that we spoke about: We are in Malaysia, they are in Singapore. We have the skill set for HSR and they don’t necessarily, but we have the total package together,” he said.

The governments of Malaysia and Singapore signed a memorandum of understanding last month to build the HSR, three years after the project was mooted, paving the way for a legally-binding bilateral agreement at the end of this year.

This month, a joint tender will be called for a Joint Development Partner to provide technical support to both countries.

Singapore’s Land Transport Authority will also be calling for a tender for an Advanced Engineering Study for the Singapore stretch of the HSR, looking at areas such as the architectural and engineering design of the Singapore terminus.

Surbana Jurong is also involved in the Indonesian rail project linking capital Jakarta with the city of Bandung in western Java.

Along with global consultancy firms W S Atkins and Aedas, it is involved in drawing up plans for transit-oriented development along the route. LEE YEN NEE