Malaysia's Abdullah confirms: Multibillion dollar railway project is off
Malaysia's Abdullah confirms: Multibillion dollar railway project is off
Rohan Sullivan Associated Press Kuala Lumpur
Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi confirmed on Wednesday the government would shelve a 14.5 billion ringgit (US$3.8 billion) railway project approved by his predecessor, saying he had other priorities.
Cabinet decided at its regular weekly meeting that construction of the railway, which would have been Malaysia's biggest-ever infrastructure project, will be postponed indefinitely.
The decision was taken "because of the need to prioritize Malaysia's many development projects," Abdullah said in a statement after the meeting.
Cabinet discussed the project at its meeting last week, and Abdullah said afterward he thought the project should be postponed because it was too costly.
The postponement is the second major financial policy decision of former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad that Abdullah has reversed, and is seen as a sign that the newcomer is emerging from the veteran leader's shadow.
Mahathir handed power to Abdullah, his hand-picked successor, when he retired on Oct. 31.
Mahathir, who ran Malaysia for 22 years, was known to favor massive infrastructure projects, such as the Petronas Twin Towers, once the world's tallest.
Abdullah has said he wants to focus more on education and social programs.
Weeks before he retired, Mahathir awarded construction contracts for project - a railway running the length of peninsula Malaysia - to a consortium headed by a businessman friend, Syed Mokhtar Albukhary.
This was despite the government earlier signing letters of intent awarding the project's two sections state-controlled Indian and Chinese companies. Mahathir's decision raised fears of trade retaliation, which didn't eventuate.
If it had gone ahead, the railway would have dwarfed the previous largest public project, the 10 billion ringgit ($2.6 billion) Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
Within two weeks of taking office, Abdullah halted another Mahathir plan - to list a government-held plantation cooperative, Felda, on the stock exchange - saying it needed further study.