The Keretapi Tanah Melayu Berhad (KTMB station) at Tanjong Pagar will be relocated to the Woodlands train checkpoint by 1 July 2011.In a Channel NewsAsia report, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and his Malaysian counterpart Najib Razak also agreed that Malaysia would co-locate its railway and Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) to the Woodlands train checkpoint.
Also announced was the establishment of MS Pte Ltd. It is reported that Malaysia’s Khazanah Nasional Berhad would hold a 60 per cent stake in this company while Singapore’s Temasek Holdings will have a 40 per cent share.
MS Pte Ltd will oversee the development of three parcels of land in Tanjong Pagar, Kranji and Woodlands, and another three pieces of land in Bukit Timah.
The railway land could be swapped for real estate in two of Singapore’s most expensive districts, in Marina South and/or Ophir-Rochor area.
In a joint statement released, both sides will conduct valuations of the land and PM Lee will visit Kuala Lumpur within a month with a proposal for a land swap.
According to Song Seng Wun, a regional economist with CIMB-GK Research in Singapore, he told AFP the railway land’s worth “could be in the billions”.
