(Jan 10): Berjaya Group is seeking a new partner as it bids for a proposed multibillion-dollar high-speed rail (HSR) line between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, after Malaysian Resources Corp Bhd (KL:MRCB) withdrew from the consortium, Berjaya Corporation Bhd (KL:BJCORP) founder Tan Sri Vincent Tan Chee Yioun Chiun said.

“As a consortium, we have put in a proposal” for the project, Tan told reporters on Friday. “After MRCB’s pullout, we may bring in a new partner.”

The rail line, which seeks to cut travel time between the two cities to 90 minutes from more than four hours by car, was earlier estimated to cost as much as RM100 billion as a government-funded project.

The project will now have to be fully funded by the private sector and be financially viable, as the government focuses on developing “public utilities and public goods”, Economy Minister Mohd Rafizi Ramli told a forum in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday. 

“The determinant is very much the dollars and cents,” Rafizi said.

Malaysia’s government already shortlisted three of seven consortiums that submitted proposals after issuing a request for information in 2023, Transport Minister Anthony Loke Siew Fook said in July, declining to identify the companies involved. 

Plans for the 350km rail line between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore were first approved in 2013, but then scrapped seven years later because of disagreements over costs and other matters. 

Tan’s consortium includes Berjaya Rail Sdn Bhd, Keretapi Tanah Melayu Bhd, IJM Corporation Bhd (KL:IJM), and technical partners such as Deutsche Bahn AG, Hitachi Rail and Hyundai Rotem Co, Berjaya said in December. 

Berjaya Rail’s chairwoman is Tunku Tun Aminah Sultan Ibrahim Ismail, the daughter of the King, Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar of Johor. Sultan Ibrahim has been pushing for the revival of the HSR project.

Tan, a vegetarian, spoke to reporters after officiating the Brahmarpanam Soup Kitchen in Kuala Lumpur. The tycoon sponsors all the vegetables from his organic farm to the kitchen, which serves vegetarian meals to the needy.

Read also:
KL-Singapore HSR can be revived with full private participation, says Anwar
MRCB confirms withdrawal from Berjaya-led HSR consortium

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