DAP veteran Tony Pua has posited that it could be cheaper to provide Malaysians free flights to Singapore than paying interest on financing for the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High Speed Rail (HSR) project.
He based his calculations on data released by flight data company OAG, which found that flights from KLIA to Changi route was the busiest international route for 2023, at 4.9 million seats.
Assuming each seat costs RM400, Pua said, it would add up to RM2 billion per year.
Comparatively, he stated that the HSR project would cost RM80 billion if the government were to fund the project.
"At an interest rate of five percent, the HSR project will cost the government RM4 billion in interest alone every year.
'Whether the demand (for HSR ridership) will even exceed the operational costs is another matter altogether.
"So, the simple conclusion is, at RM4 billion interest cost for HSR, the government might as well just pay for all flights between KL and Singapore and still save RM2 billion," he said in a Facebook post today.
The former MP added that the cost of free flights would be even cheaper if it were only for Malaysians.
‘Makes no financial sense’
He said this showed that the HSR project makes no financial sense for Malaysia.
The HSR project was shelved in 2021 after Malaysia and Singapore could not come to an agreement on its execution.
The current administration has said it was open to reviving the project but the government would not pay for it.
Instead, Putrajaya would only consider private financing initiatives.
One proponent for reviving the HSR is the next Yang di-Pertuan Agong, Johor's Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar.
Sultan Ibrahim wants the HSR route to pass through Forest City, an ailing development project that the monarch has a major business stake in. - Mkini
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