Singapore-KL rail link calls for rigorous time and cost management

THE tantalising prospect of a high-speed rail (HSR) slicing through the coast of the Malaysian peninsula from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore where Jurong East has been identified as the terminus came a step closer to reality this week.

The bonhomie between the leaders of both countries - Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Malaysia's Najib Razak - at the annual leaders' retreat here as they laid the course for the mega project dubbed a "game changer" was unmistakable.

It lent a sense of firm commitment from both sides to get this rail project, admittedly their most pivotal bilateral project, on the right track.