MALAYSIA - rail tracks adds to SKRL project

eTN Asia, 11-09-2006

ASEAN looking to China for assistance to build next stretch covering 257km.
KUNMING, China (eTN): The ASEAN-led Singapore to Kunming Rail Link (SKRL) has taken another step with the addition of used rail tracks donated by Malaysia.

Cambodia will start lying the rail tracks in early 2007, and on completion of the line in 2009 it will link Poipet to Sisophon.

The stretch will enable travelers to journey by train all the way through from Singapore to Phnom Penh, via the SKRL route in eastern Cambodia.

"The tracks, to be delivered in six batches, have arrived in the Thai-Cambodia border town of Aranyaprathet," chairman Chan Kong Choy, Malaysian transport minister told transport and rail authorities from China, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and ASEAN Secretariat who attended the 8th Working Group meeting here.

The SKRL, added Chan, will seek assistance from China to complete the next connection between Phnom Penh-Loc Ninh covering a distance of 257km inside Cambodia, eventually linking the line to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam.

"Funding to lay the tracks for the additional 48km Poipet-Siophon link will come from the US$72 million loan granted by the Asian Development Bank to Cambodia."

A part of the money will also be used to rehabilitate the Phnom-Penh-Sihanoukville connection.

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