Nearly 400 people from 165 local and international companies attended an industry briefing on Wednesday (July 5) for those interested in bidding to become the assets company (AssetsCo) for the upcoming High-Speed Rail (HSR) that will connect Singapore with Kuala Lumpur, reported TODAYonline.
Most of the event participants came from 67 European firms, 29 from Malaysia, 25 from Singapore and 21 from other Asian countries, with the rest originating from Australia and North America. These include six local firms that intend to partner with multinational players to jointly take part in the HSR project. These are DBS Bank, Clifford Capital, Surbana Jurong, SMRT International, Sembcorp Design and Construction, as well as Singapore Technologies Electronics.
A consortium consisting of NEC Japan, Japan Rail and Japan Bank for International Cooperation was also in attendance. Previously, media reports revealed that Hong Kong-based MTR Corporation is also keen to team up with China Railway Corporation to secure an HSR contract.
Participants included financiers and investors, rail network operators, engineering and legal consultants, suppliers and integrators of rolling stock and system, as well as operators and construction companies.
The briefing was jointly conducted by Singapore’s Land Transport Authority (LTA) and the MyHSR Corporation, which is owned by Malaysia’s Ministry of Finance.
According to LTA Chief Executive Ngien Hoon Ping, they were happy with the “strong interest” shown by various firms to participate in the briefing, which oriented the attendees on the requisites of the upcoming AssetsCo tender and procurement procedure, among other things.
Notably, the assets company’s role is to design, fund, construct and maintain all rolling stock and rail assets of the HSR like its power, track-work, signalling and telecommunication systems.
During the briefing, the participants were also informed that the rail line between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur must be able to handle speeds up of to 350km per hour. It must also be capable of accommodating all types of conventional high-speed rail trains and technology available at present.
Upon completion by 2026, the 350km-long HSR is expected to reduce the travel time between the two cities to 1.5 hrs, versus nearly five hours by car.
This article was edited by Denise Djong.
