S'pore in railway dispute with KL

S'pore in railway dispute with KL

SINGAPORE: Singapore said on Thursday it wants another of its
many long-running disputes with neighbor Malaysia, this time over
railway land, to be resolved through an international court.

The latest issue to rise up out of the simmering tensions
between the Southeast Asian nations centers on 200 hectares (494
acres) of land that Malaysia's national KTM railway owns in
Singapore.

Part of the KTM land is in Tanjong Pagar, prime real estate in
Singapore's business district, where Malaysia still has an
immigration and customs checkpoint.

Passengers getting on the train at Tanjong Pagar enter a
twilight zone of being in Malaysian territory while physically
still being surrounded by Singapore.

The anomaly is a throwback to the 1965 separation of the two
countries under which KTM held onto its prize railway possession
thanks to a 999-year lease signed during the British colonial
days.

Singapore has long wanted to push back the checkpoint to the
Malaysian border and, in a sign of increasing frustration over a
lack of progress since the two nations signed a compromise
agreement in 1990, has begun pushing for an international
verdict. -- AFP