Singapore forms high speed rail infrastructure company

Land Transport Authority has formed SG HSR Pte Ltd as wholly-owned subsidiary to act as Infrastructure Company for its part of the Kuala Lumpur – Singapore High Speed Rail project.

SG HSR will be responsible for building, owning, funding and maintaining the civil works in Singapore. This will include the station at Jurong East, the tunnels and Singapore’s share of the bridge over the Straits of Johor.

SG HSR and its Malaysian counterpart MyHSR Corp plan to call tenders later this year for the joint appointment of an Assets Company which would be responsible for designing, building, financing and maintaining railway systems and rolling stock for the whole 350 km line.

The two InfraCos will also jointly organise an international open tender to select the International Operator which would operate the Kuala Lumpur – Singapore Express non-stop 90 min service and the cross-border Shuttle Service between Iskandar Puteri and Singapore.

Once services begin, SG HSR would administer Singapore’s interests in the various concessions. It will have an initial share capital of S$1m, and is expected to receive funding support from the government in the initial years.

LTA Chairman Alan Chan and Deputy Chairman Richard Lim will concurrently hold the same roles at SG HSR, while Rama Venkta has been appointed as Managing Director and Chin Chee Kiat as Deputy Managing Director of the new subsidiary.

‘HSR is an exciting bilateral project that will bring Singapore and Malaysia closer, and allow people to connect more conveniently and efficiently for business and leisure’, said LTA Chief Executive Ngien Hoon Ping on September 21. ‘SG HSR will provide stronger management focus and dedicated resources to handle the complexities of the project and meet the ambitious 2026 timeline. SG HSR will work under the close guidance of the LTA and the Ministry of Transport to ensure smooth implementation of the HSR project.’