ASEAN is contemplating a link that will run from Singapore to Kunming in southwestern China.
According to ASEAN’s website, there is an estimated 4,069 kilometres (2,522 miles) of missing links that need to be built, or existing railways that need to be rehabilitated, in several countries.
“Beyond ASEAN, once these links are built, it will connect both the mainland ASEAN and ASEAN with its trading partners China and India,” a fact sheet on the project said.
The Singapore-Malaysia high-speed rail link was first mooted in the 1990s by Francis Yeoh, head of Malaysian infrastructure conglomerate YTL, which built an express train service from the Kuala Lumpur International Airport to the capital’s downtown area.
The idea was repeatedly shelved largely due to cost concerns. Malaysian media reports said in 2009 that the project’s cost was estimated at $2.5 billion-$3.5 billion.
Hopes for the project were revived in 2010 when it was tapped as a potential key project under an economic transformation drive launched by Najib, who became prime minister the year before.
