MOT: Time extension sought from S'pore to work on RTS contracts

Transport Minister Anthony Loke has confirmed that Malaysia had sought another extension for suspension of the Rapid Transit System (RTS) project with Singapore.

At the Parliament lobby today, Loke (above) said the earlier extensions were sought in order for Malaysia to produce a proposal to amend the bilateral agreement on the project.

Last week, Putrajaya had said the new proposal will entail paring down costs of the project by a third to RM3.16 billion and securing the cooperation of the Johor palace.

"The (extension of the) suspension is not meant for a review... It's (for the) implementation stage," he said.

Loke said Malaysia and Singapore now have to work out amendments to three bilateral agreement by April 30, 2020.

He said a joint-engineering study would have to be conducted before amendments can be made to the bilateral agreement, joint-venture agreement and conception agreement.

The project, which was entered into by the previous BN-administration, sought to link Johor Bahru and Woodlands by rail and will pass through land owned by the Johor sultan.

In an exclusive report in May, Malaysiakini reported that the land was transferred to the Johor sultan in 2017 before the alignment was confirmed. 

Previously, Loke had slammed MCA-owned The Star for running a front-page report on Oct 31 claiming that Putrajaya had yet to arrive at a decision on what to do with the RTS project. 

The report appeared on the very same day when Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad was scheduled to hold a press conference to announce his administration's new proposal.

However, at the time, Loke did not state that Malaysia had requested for the third extension on Oct 28.

Malaysia and Singapore had previously agreed to suspend the three agreements until Sept 30 in order for Putrajaya to review the project. This was initially extended until Oct 31. -Mkini