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