Channel News Asia reported on May 12 that the two governments have agreed to equally share the cost of the study. The consortium will be responsible for developing alignment options and will also carry out detailed design on the preferred route, which will be selected by the Iskandar Malaysia Joint Ministerial Committee.
The prime minister of Singapore Mr Lee Hsien Loong and his Malaysian counterpart Mr Najib Tun Razak agreed in February that the two countries would aim to complete the line by 2020, which would reduce the journey time between the two cities from 6h 11min to around 90 minutes.
According to the report, other bidders for the contract included Arup, Egis Rail, Jurong Consultants, Meinhardt Infrastructure, Mott MacDonald, and Ty Lin International.
