Just two days after the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between Singapore and Malaysia on the Singapore-Kuala Lumpur High Speed Rail (HSR) project, Japanese authorities are stepping up on their pitch to both countries to run the highly-anticipated link.
On Thursday (July 21), Mr Keiichi Ishii, Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, met top officials in Malaysia, including Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai.
On Friday morning, he met with Ms Josephine Teo, Senior Minister of State for Transport, before speaking at the 2nd High Speed Rail Symposium, which Ms Teo also attended.
Speaking to reporters through an interpreter, Mr Ishii was optimistic that a Japan operator could win the bid. “I informed the Malaysia and Singapore governments that Japan will work together (with them) in order to support the project in terms of finance and in terms of human development, and in terms of development of the facilities surrounding the terminal stations,” he said.
During the symposium, Mr Yuji Fukasawa, executive vice president of East Japan Railway Company (JR East), one of the Shinkansen operators, said that commercial operations for the Singapore-Kuala Lumpur HSR could start in just seven years — in Japanese hands.
On Tuesday, Singapore and Malaysia signed a seven-point MOU, under which both countries agreed on a target start date of 2026 for HSR services, which will cut land travelling time between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur to 90 minutes.
In the interim, both countries will have to appoint a company to provide and maintain the rail assets such as tracks and trains, and two train operators to run three types of rail services — an express service between Singapore and Kualu Lumpur, a shuttle service between Singapore and Iskandar Puteri, and a domestic service in Malaysia.
Mr Ishii touted several benefits of Japan’s bullet train system, the Shinkansen, when asked about their advantage over Chinese firms, which have also reportedly expressed interest in making a bid.
“There are several excellent points of the Shinkansen, there is safety, reliability, not only the low initial cost, but total life cycle cost is very low. The other point is that it is very excellent in project management, meaning that it could deliver the project within the designated time,” said Mr Ishii.
Japan and China had battled it out last year to build a rail line in Indonesia, with China Railway ultimately emerging with a deal to build the Jakarta-Bandung railway, which will be operational by 2019.
A spokesman for Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism said Mr Ishii had stressed Japan’s track record in safety during his meetings with Singapore and Malaysia officials.
“The Singapore and Malaysia side didn’t clearly mention which point they are looking at in order to decide the winner of this project. But we just asked them to look (at) the safety and reliability and many points comprehensively,” he said.
During the symposium, Mr Fukasawa also gave projections and action plans on how JR East would roll out the Singapore-Malaysia project in seven years, if awarded.
For instance, in the first few years, training of personnel would commence, followed by construction of the test track and all sections, which would start in the third year and end by year six.
Commercial operations would start in year seven.
Source: TODAY Online
