KUALA LUMPUR, Oct. 5 (Xinhua) -- The ticket price for the high speed rail linking Kuala Lumpur and Singapore is expected to cost 44 to 48 U.S. dollars per trip, an analyst of a think tank said on Thursday.
The assumption was based on an estimated cost of 20 billion to 25 billion Singapore dollars (14.8 billion to 18 billion U.S. dollars) for the 350-km or 90-minute journey from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of Malaysia. according to Singapore's Institute of Southeast Asia Studies (ISEAS)'s senior fellow Francis Hutchinson.
Civil infrastructure such as tunnels and bridges may cost up to 15 billion Singapore dollars (11 billion U.S. dollars), he said during a presentation at a conference.
Meanwhile, around 5 billion Singapore dollars (3.5 billion U.S. dollars) may be allocated to laying of tracks, electrification, systems integration. Other costs include land acquisition, and the train themselves, which may worth up to 1.7 billion Singapore dollars, he added.
Despite only 4 percent of the rail works will be conducted in Singapore, Hutchinson opined that the construction cost for Singapore's may be much higher than Malaysia's, mainly due to its underground works.
Malaysia and Singapore's governments signed a bilateral agreement on Dec. 13, 2016 to construct the high speed rail.
The rail will open with eight stations with operations of the Express Service between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore targeted for commencement by 2026.
The major infrastructure project has drawn interests from countries with high speed rail expertise and technology like China, Japan, South Korea and European countries.
