KUALA LUMPUR (May 11): French rail engineering consultancy firm Systra SA said it is partnering with Australia-based Meinhardt Group to prepare and complete the reference design for Malaysia’s upcoming KL-Singapore high speed rail civil infrastructure.

Systra said its collaboration with Meinhardt will see both firms providing the full range of multidisciplinary services and expertise required for the preparation of the high speed rail’s reference design.

“We are proud to have been awarded these contracts,” said Systra’s chief executive officer (CEO) Pierre Verzat in a joint-statement. “This is a very prestigious project that all the world’s major engineering companies want to work on and we are honoured to have been selected.

“Together with our partners, we look forward to working with MyHSR Corp to deliver this transformational project,” said Verzat.

Meinhardt CEO Omar Shahzad said the contracts win gives a “major impetus to our collaboration with Systra to leverage our complementary skill sets, capabilities and local presence across the transportation sector.”

Systra's move to rope in Meinhardt as its partner came after its success in clinching two reference design contracts from MyHSR Corp Sdn Bhd early last month.

Systra said the first contract covers the civil reference design works of the two international stations within Malaysia: Bandar Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur and Iskandar Puteri in Johor.

The second contract covers the civil reference design works covering the first 38km from Bandar Malaysia Station to the state border between Selangor and Negeri Sembilan.

MyHSR Corp had last month dished out reference design contracts to six firms that included Systra, Jacobs Engineering Services Sdn Bhd, Ranhill Consulting Sdn Bhd, HSS Integrated Sdn Bhd, and Aecom Perunding Sdn Bhd.

MyHSR Corp had said that the overall scope of the reference design work includes international stations at Bandar Malaysia and Iskandar Puteri, five domestic stations at Putrajaya, Seremban, Melaka, Muar, and Batu Pahat, and the alignment civil works from Bandar Malaysia station to the International Border between Malaysia and Singapore.

A Ministry of Finance-owned company that was incorporated in 2015, MyHSR Corp’s award of six reference design contracts followed the international open tenders that it had called in August 2016, requesting for engineering consultants to design the high speed rail stations and finalising the civil infrastructure such as the bridges and tunnels.