MyHSR: Final alignment proposal in early 2018
MyHSR to study public feedback before submitting plan to SPAD next year
MyHSR public delivery director Mark Loader (left) and commercial director Tonny Yeap at a briefing on the progress of the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore highspeed rail project.
MYHSR Corporation Sdn Bhd, the project delivery vehicle for the Kuala LumpurSingapore high-speed rail (HSR) development, will submit the final rail alignment proposal to the Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) by the first quarter of next year.
MyHSR director of public delivery Mark Loader said the company would take into consideration the feedback it received through public inspection exercise before submitting the proposed final alignment.
The public inspection exercise started from November 1 and would end on January 31 next year.
“Once the exercise ended, it will take one or two months for us to study the feedback from the exercise.
“The final alignment for the project would take into consideration all the feedback received,” said Loader at a media briefing on the project’s progress, here, yesterday. Also present was MyHSR director of commercial Tonny Yeap.
The Kuala Lumpur-Singapore HSR alignment is expected to be 328km long and have seven stations in Malaysia, namely Bandar Malaysia, Bangi-Putrajaya, Seremban, Melaka, Muar, Batu Pahat and Iskandar Puteri.
In Singapore, the HSR station will be located in Jurong East.
Johor will have the longest alignment with about 182km and three stations. It will also be home to two major maintenance facilities, namely a main depot located north of the Iskandar Puteri station for all HSR train maintenance and a heavy maintenance base near the Muar station, responsible for the maintenance of the HSR track, power supply and signalling systems.
Loader said MyHSR would avoid building the alignment underground as much as possible as it would make the project more expensive.
“However, the HSR track needs to be as flat and straight as possible to make it go fast so there are certain stretches of the alignment that have to be built underground due to the terrain.
“But, we expect this to make up less than five per cent of the total alignment,” he said.
Loader said the project had received overwhelming support from the public in Johor.
“About 99 per cent of the respondents in Johor have provided positive feedback through the Public Inspection exercise,” he said.
Meanwhile, Yeap said the winning bid for the project’s Project Delivery Partner (PDP) was likely to be announced by the first quarter of next year.
“The deadline for the potential PDPs to submit their proposals has been set at the end of January next year while the winning bid will likely be announced in the first quarter,” he said.
“We are open to both local and foreign companies or consortium. What’s important is that the bidders should and must have railway experience in Malaysia and also the expertise in high speed rail,” said Yeap.