JOHOR BARU: Sultan of Johor Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar wants the previously cancelled Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High Speed Rail (HSR) project to be revived.
In an exclusive interview with Singapore's The Straits Times, he said he had several ideas on how to bring it the project back on track.
"I will try to revive the project. The project It can be financed via a private funded initiative, where in which the government pays the contractor to manage the project for 30 years under a leasing agreement.
"This would enable the contractor to recoup the investment before the government takes back ownership of the HSR.
"The project should also be aligned such that the border crossing is via Forest City, the troubled property development in Johor."
Sultan Ibrahim said the project cost would have been cheaper if the first proposal been followed.
"If you stuck with your first proposal, it's only so much. But because of your on-off-on-off, today it is so much (more)."
He was referring to the initial RM72 billion cost estimate when the HSR project was first announced in 2013.
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On March 8 this year, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's administration had previously said that it was open to reviving the HSR, but will not fund the 350km line last estimated to cost more than RM100 billion.
However, on July 12, it was reported that the KL-Singapore HSR project implementation would be privately funded by MyHSR Corporation Sdn Bhd (MyHSR Corp).
MyHSR Corp chairman Datuk Seri Fauzi Abdul Rahman was quoted as saying that the mandate given by the government to MyHSR to implement the project was that it would not incur any cost from the government.
This, he said, would meant that it would be entirely privately funded without any government funds or guarantees.
In August, Anwar said Malaysia would be tabling a new suggestion to Singapore on the HSR project.
On Nov 2, Transport Minister Anthony Loke said the government was studying a new model for the project which he said, would include private companies keen on taking on its cost of the project, as well as its system management and operations.
On Jan 1, 2021, then prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and his Singapore counterpart, Lee Hsien Loong, in a joint statement had announced the cancellation of the project after both countries failed to reach a consensus before the project agreement expired on Dec 31, 2020.