JOHOR BARU: MyHSR Corp Sdn Bhd will submit the final proposal for the alignment of the KL-Singapore High Speed Rail (HSR) 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 feedback it received from the public through the public inspection exercise before submitting the proposed final alignment for the project.
The public inspection exercise began on Nov 1, this year and would end on Jan 31, 2018.
"Once the exercise ended, it will take one or two months for us to study the feedback we received from the exercise. The final alignment for the project would take into consideration all the feedback received," said Loader.
The KL-Singapore HSR alignment is expected to measure about 328km and will have seven stations in Malaysia, namely in 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. The state will also be home to two major maintenance facilities for the project, namely a main depot located north of the Iskandar Puteri station for all HSR train maintenance and a heavy maintenance base to be located near Muar station responsible for the upkeep of the HSR track, power supply and signalling systems.
Loader said MyHSR would avoid building the alignment underground as much as possible as that would make the project too expensive.
"However, the HSR track needs to be as flat and straight as possible to make it go fast so there are certain stretch of the alignment that have to be built underground due to the terrain. But, we expected this to be less than five per cent of the total alighment," he said.
Loader said so far, the project has received overwhelming support from the public in Johor.
"About 99 per cent of the respondents in Johor have provided positive feedback on the project through the Public Inspection exercise," said Loader.
He was speaking to the media at a media briefing on the progress of the project here. Also present was MyHSR director of commercial Tonny Yeap.
Yeap said the winning bid for the project's Project Delivery Partner (PDP) is expected to be announced by the first quarter of next year.
"The dealine for the for potential PDP to submit their proposals have been set for the end of January next year and the winning bid will likely be announced in the first quarter," said Yeap.
MyHSR called for a tender for the appointment of the PDP - which will be responsible for the development of the detailed design for the infrastructure works, including the station and the alignment structures within Malaysia, and build them on budget and on time - on November 22.
"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.