JOHOR BARU: Singapore has denied that it is holding back on deciding the alignment for the Rapid Transit System (RTS) link.
A Ministry of Transport spokesperson said in a statement today that it is waiting for official confirmation from Malaysia on the location of the RTS terminus in Johor Baru before it could decide on the alignment.
The suggestion that Singapore has been delaying progress on the RTS link is incorrect.
"Singapore informed Malaysia in June 2011 that the RTS terminus in Singapore would be located at Woodlands North near Republic Polytechnic. However, to date, Singapore has not received official confirmation of the location of Malaysia’s RTS terminus in Johor Baru.
"Only upon confirmation of the location of the terminus can both countries proceed to finalise the alignment of the crossing between Johor Baru and Singapore," said the statement.
The Ministry was responding to a New Straits Times report last Thursday, quoting State Public Works, Rural and Regional Development Executive Committee chairman Datuk Hasni Mohammad as saying that the Johor government had made it known to the Federal Government that the terminating station would be at Bukit Chagar, and that the matter was reported in the media.
However, he said there was nothing conclusive from the recent Malaysia-Singapore Joint Ministerial Committee for Iskandar Malaysia meeting on Feb 6.
During the meeting, Singapore and Malaysia agreed that the second phase of the Joint Engineering Study on the RTS link will begin after the terminus location in Johor Baru has been confirmed by Malaysia.
This was stated in the joint statement issued by the Malaysian and Singapore governments immediately after the meeting. The Johor state government was represented at the meeting.
The statement said Singapore is looking forward to official confirmation from the Malaysian government for the location of the RTS terminus in Johor Baru.
"Singapore remains committed to working closely with Malaysia on the RTS link, which will provide a boost to cross-border connectivity.”