S'pore not yet officially notified on HSR cancellation

SINGAPORE: Singapore has yet to receive an official notification from Malaysia on the plan to scrap the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High-Speed Rail (HSR) project, said the republic's Ministry of Transport today.
"We had agreed to proceed with the HSR project based on mutual benefits and obligations set out in the HSR bilateral agreement. We will wait for official communication from Malaysia," the ministry's spokesperson said in an email reply to Bernama.
Earlier today, Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad confirmed that Malaysia would drop the project and would potentially have to pay RM500 million in compensation.
"It is a final decision but it will take time because we have an agreement with Singapore. It is not beneficial to Malaysia because it is going to cost us a huge sum of money and we will make no money at all from it because it is a short track," he said.
Dr Mahathir said Malaysia would discuss the matter with Singapore soon with the aim of handling the project cancellation in a "least-cost manner".
The 350km HSR project – with the Singapore portion covering 15km – was scheduled to be completed by 2026. — Bernama