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KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 31): A large portion of the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore high-speed rail (HSR) project alignment would cut through green spaces to reduce land acquisition cost, said MyHSR Corp Sdn Bhd.
“Compared with the mass rapid rail and light rail transit alignments which are highly urbanised, displacement [of people] is higher,” said MyHSR commercial director Tony Yeap. “In our case, they are ‘passing through’ cities but a large part of the alignment is in green areas.”
MyHSR, the developer and asset owner of the Malaysian side of the HSR, has started the process of freezing land within a 500m corridor where stations would be located and where the alignment would run to lock the land price fixed by the government for the next 12 months.
At a media briefing on the rail project’s public inspection, Yeap said he expects the state authorities to give their approval on the process to freeze the land by the end of this year. Following that, affected landowners would be personally informed of the alignment.
According to the alignment, 159.4km of rail line would run at grade (above ground), 153.4km would be elevated while 14.9km would traverse underground.
“The alignment has gone through a lot of stress testing both internally and from a technical standpoint so that we can build something that can go at high speed but there are a lot of constraints,” said Yeap. “At the same time, we are working with local authorities to make sure that the alignment, at the very best, avoids major urban areas. The result we have today is a fairly optimised alignment that minimises social displacement and cost,” he said.
On public inspection, Yeap said the gathering of public input for the HSR project will take place from tomorrow to Jan 31 next year at 43 locations in Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya, Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, Melaka and Johor. “The public inspection would help us gather feedback on what is on the ground, and see how we can tweak it while looking from technical and cost perspectives,” he said.
Upon completion of the public inspection, MyHSR would consolidate responses and submit them to the Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD). “We aim to get [the] final approval from SPAD on the alignment by April next year,” said MyHSR project delivery group director Mark Loader. “Once the railway scheme is approved, it allows us to start construction and land acquisition.” The rail project is targeted for completion in 2026.
This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on Oct 31, 2017.
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