KUALA LUMPUR ― A bilateral meeting to discuss the fate of the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High Speed Rail (HSR) will likely take place early this month, Malaysian Economic Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali has said, after a deadline lapsed for Putrajaya to indicate its official position on the strained project.

Singapore's Ministry of Transport said on July 20 that it had asked the Malaysian government to clarify its official position on the HSR, in writing, by July 31 and to indicate, also by that date, if it still wished to hold bilateral talks on the 350km line, scheduled for completion by 2026.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday (July 31), Mr Azmin dismissed the deadline set by Singapore as a “suggestion”.

“That is Singapore’s suggestion. As I mentioned in my letter last week [to Singapore] we will firm up the date,” he added. “We are quite occupied for Parliament, hopefully we will meet in early August."

Putrajaya has sent mixed signals on the HSR in recent months, with Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and his Cabinet ministers vacillating between firm vows to cancel it, and abrupt suggestions weeks later hinting at possible deferment or continuation of the project.

Malaysia's foreign minister Saifuddin Abdullah told the official Bernama news agency on Monday that Mr Azmin had written to his Singaporean counterpart on July 23, saying that he will be travelling to Singapore to discuss the HSR project.

“(The meeting) will take place very soon...we want to sit down and discuss,” Mr Saifuddin was quoted as saying, without giving a specific date for the bilateral meeting. It is unclear what else Mr Azmin raised in his letter.

The "game changing" HSR project  was first proposed by Malaysia in 2013 and would have slashed rail travel time between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur to 90 minutes.

Despite the uncertainties surrounding the rail line, Singapore continues to incur cost on the HSR project, with expenditure expected to hit some S$300 million by year-end, Mr Khaw told Parliament on July 9, warning that a "significant" amount of the funds spent would be "completely wasted" if the project was called off.

Giving a detailed breakdown of the costs involved, Mr Khaw said that the Government had spent over S$250 million on the project by the end of May this year.

In June, Singapore had spent over S$6 million on the project and expects to spend a similar amount for it in July. Costs for the project are expected to "increase rapidly' with time, the minister added, estimating the expenditure for the August to end-December period at over S$40 million.

“As the HSR bilateral agreement is a binding international treaty, both Malaysia and Singapore remain obliged to fulfil the existing terms of the agreement, in the absence of mutually agreed amendments to the agreement," Singapore's transport ministry pointed out on Friday. AGENCIES 

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