The proposed High Speed Rail (HSR) link between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore is making good progress. – Channel News Asia

SINGAPORE: The proposed High Speed Rail (HSR) link between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore is making good progress.

This was revealed in a joint statement after the 10th Malaysia-Singapore Joint Ministerial Committee Meeting for Iskandar Malaysia (JMCIM).

The meeting was held in Singapore, and was co-chaired by National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan and Malaysia’s Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Abdul Wahid Omar.

Also present were Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew and Johor’s chief minister Mohamed Khaled Nordin.

The JMCIM said discussions over how to improve connectivity and linkages between the two cities have begun.

The Rapid Transit System between Singapore and Johor Bahru is also on track.

Both countries have agreed to work towards a preferred and agreed option by the end of this year.

For now, people travelling between both countries can benefit from 20 cross-border bus services, up from the previous 16.

Both sides are currently reviewing new landing points to enhance the bus network.

More people have also applied for faster immigration clearance from Singapore into Malaysia last year, highlighting both countries’ progress in facilitating cross-border movement.

Some 127,000 new applications for the Malaysian Automated Clearance System were made last year, taking the total number of applications since 2009 to nearly 372,000.

The JMCIM also highlighted progress in areas like industrial cooperation, housing, tourism and the environment.

It noted that cooperation in the areas of Advanced Materials Engineering (AME), Electronics, Creative Services and Food was gaining momentum.

In the area of AME, Singapore and Malaysia have agreed to build up a regional ecosystem of suppliers across both countries to support the fast-growing oil and gas industry in Asia.

In housing, construction has begun on Afiniti Medini, an urban wellness project in Iskandar Malaysia.

The development is on track to be completed by the end of 2015.

The first phase of a separate development in the area, Avira Wellness Resort, will be launched in the first half of this year.

Singapore and Malaysia have also conducted five ecotourism-related workshops.

Representatives from both countries jointly inspected the three Ramsar Johor sites, which are wetlands that are being primed for eco-tourism.

The JMCIM said both countries are exploring collaboration in the MICE (Meeting, Incentive, Conference, Exhibitions) sector for these sites.

It also noted the good collaboration in the areas of river clean-up and environmental management.

It said most of the identified action plans for river cleaning in Iskandar Malaysia have been implemented and are well on track.

– CNA/fa

KL-S’pore high speed rail link will take off albeit some time later, says Hishammuddin – The Sun Daily

http://www.thesundaily.my/news/956959

SINGAPORE (Feb 13, 2014): Acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussien says the High Speed Rail Link (HSR) between Kuala Lumpur-Singapore will take off although it will take some time to be realised.

He said the massive project was an economic initiative that not involved the Transport Ministry but also the Economic Planning Unit in the Prime Minister’s Department.

“That’s what I say…things that we thought impossible, and only a few years back, the two prime ministers of Malaysia and Singapore have reached such a good level of working arrangement and relationship to come up with the iconic project to bind us, that I think will go ahead,” he said.

Earlier, Hishammuddin, who is also Defence Minister, attended a ceremony in honour of fallen World War 11 hero, Lt Adnan Saidi and his team from the Malay Regiment, who were killed in a battle defending Singapore from the invading Japanese 71 years ago.

Also present was Malaysia’s High Commissioner to Singapore Datuk Husni Zai Yaacob.

At the the Leaders’ Retreat here in February 2013, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak and Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced the 330km project at an estimated cost of US$12 billion.

The project, expected to be completed in 2020, will shorten travel time to just 90 minutes between the two cities.

It was an idea initiated in the 1990s but never took off.

Hishammuddin said the completion of the HSR would bring enormous economic benefits to both neighbouring countries.

“I am just looking around what’s happening in the world, (if) you see the train that comes from London to Paris..the benefits that come from it..and imagine the train coming from Singapore to KL…what are the benefits, but it is still some time away before we can get there,” he said, adding that it would take place.

The Malaysia-Singapore Joint Ministerial Committee for Iskandar Malaysia has been tasked to look into the details and the modalities of the HSR to improve connectivity and linkages between Malaysia and Singapore.

A HSR Work Group was then formed and it has made good progress since its formation in December 2013.

Discussions have started with a working session held last month.

The work group has identified matters for joint deliberations. – Bernama

Will the RM160b for the Malaysia 1st high speed train project goes mainly to buy the foreign technology?

The plan to build a high speed train system connecting Singapore and Kuala Lumpur is seem to be finalised and realized soon. Malaysia is said willing to spent RM160 billion for this project (http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/business/article/malaysia-to-spend-rm160-billion-on-rail-projects-including-high-speed-train) as it’ll enhance the Malaysia economic activities.

Many componies, locally and oversies, have shown an interest on this project, as reported on http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Nation/2013/10/05/China-shows-interest-in-KLSingapore-highspeed-rail-project.aspx “MMC Corp Bhd, which may team up with Gamuda Bhd and Chinese and European system integrators and YTL Corp Bhd with Spanish bullet train maker Talgo or CAF. Other firms are UEM Group Bhd, which is working with Ara Group to form a consortium with European companies that may also include Talgo, while Global Rail is said to be talking to Canada’s Bombardier Inc and Chinese firm China Railway Group.”

Previously, I reported my concern for the local experts to take part actively on this project https://people.utm.my/dr-sukri/2013/07/31/malaysias-high-speed-train-plan-should-utilise-local-experts/ and to date my concern is still the same.

Recently, Japan’s prime ministry has STRONGLY requested for Malaysia to choose Shikansen technology (http://www.mb.com.ph/japan-pm-talks-up-bullet-train-to-malaysia/). Not to forget that Chinese and Korean have already shown an interest earlier  (http://investvine.com/kl-singapore-high-speed-link-to-kick-off/).

Is Malaysia really need a foreign technology to build it own High Speed Train system??

 

Malaysia set to spend US$50b to develop rail network (http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/malaysia-set-to-spend-us/809918.html)

MALAYSIA: Malaysia plans to spend a staggering US$50 billion to develop its rail network over the next seven years, including a high-speed rail linking Kuala Lumpur and Singapore set for 2020, and the urban mass rapid transit system that is rolling out in 2017.

Compared to developed countries where rail transport makes up a third of public transportation, Malaysia’s share is less than 4 per cent.

People here rely heavily on roads because existing train services are slow and train journeys are time consuming. However with spiralling land and fuel costs, limited space and traffic congestion, rail transportation is seeing a revival.

Prime Minister Najib Razak recently announced big plans for the country at a global rail conference. Mr Najib said: “Once considered a dying industry, railroads have made a strong comeback and are poised to become busier passageways in the years ahead.”

According to the land public transport commission (SPAD), the government has allocated almost US$50 billion for rail-related projects – three times more than what it spent in the last two decades.

The MY Rapid Transit (MRT), when fully operational, will cover a distance of 150 kilometres and provide half of the public transport services in the Klang Valley.

Commuter train services will also be expanded with the electrified double track railway. Spanning 1,000 kilometres from Padang Besar in the north, to Johor Bahru in the south, the project is expected to cost the government over US$13 billion.

Despite the massive cost overruns and project delays, KTM, as well as the government, want the electrified double track rail to be ready two years ahead of the scheduled completion of the high-speed rail linking Kuala Lumpur and Singapore by year 2018.

Mr Syed Hamid Albar, SPAD chairman, said: “It’s not a competition… I think we are looking at people, the sector we are looking at generally is people who may like to go by flight for long distances (but not for short distances). But not everybody likes to go on fast trains, because fast trains there will be different cost elements. So I think both can be complementary.”

Still there has been much buzz about the high-speed rail link. It will have a 90-minute express service every hour, as well as three transit services lasting less than two hours.

Tickets will be priced below that of budget airlines.

Malaysia’s technical team will engage its Singapore counterpart next month. Negotiations may take up to 12 months before the tender process begins. Construction is expected to begin by 2015, before the scheduled take off in 2020.

subset: a mesh manipulation in OpenFOAM

Example: flow over a cube

1) create a computational domain using blockMesh (Hexagonal)

2) using toposetDict, define the geometry of the cube:

actions
(

{
name blockFaces;
type cellSet;
action new;
source boxToCell;
sourceInfo
{
box (-2 -2 -2)(2 2 2);
}
}

{
name blockFaces;
type cellSet;
action invert;

}

);

3) run “toposet” in the terminal

4) run “subsetMesh -overwrite blockFaces -patch block” in the terminal

5) check your mesh using paraview

OpenFOAM Roadshow 01-2013

Thanks to Dr. Azli of UiTM for hosting the 1st OpenFOAM roadshow for Malaysia CFD community. It was a successful event with the spirit to spread the awareness and usage of Free and Open Source Software. Thanks also goes to the participants (uni. staff and industry) who have committed to form a strong OpenFOAM discussion group in Malaysia.

Let me know if you like to join our discussion group.

 

OpenFOAM Malaysia Discussion Group

OpenFOAM is a free CFD software package and it has large no. of users and it keeps growing. In Malaysia, OpenFOAM users are still small but there are many inquiries on how they can switch from commercial softwares to OpenFOAM.

Therefore, we would like to invite you to join an informal discussion on how can we fully utilise this free yet reliable CFD software package.

You present in the discussion is really appreciated. Looking forward to see you there.

Venue: OldTown White Coffee, 1st Ground Floor, Jalan Radin Annum, 57000 Kuala Lumpur

Time: 7 Sept 2013, Saturday, 11am – 1pm

Agenda: Informal discussion yet informative for CFD users to know about OpenFOAM. You can also propose to the group a suitable case study for us to develop our OpenFOAM skills.

Malaysia’s High Speed Train Plan Should Utilise Local Experts

Malaysia is currently under a rapid development and the target for Malaysia to achieve a developed nation status by 2020 is hardly deniable. Under the 12 National Key Economic Areas for Malaysia engine economic growth and also under the Urban Public Transport National Key Results Area (NKRA) to ease the traffic congestion problems in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia is committed to build a high speed train system between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.

In February 19, 2013, Singapore and Malaysia announced plans to build the rail link by 2020, which would cut travel time for the 350 kilometres (220 miles) between the city-state and Kuala Lumpur by more than half (4 hours by air including travel to and from the airports, check-in, boarding and other airport procedures) to 90 minutes.

To build a good high speed train system, Malaysia requires a large group of expert from many fields (Eng.,Acct,Manag,Law and etc). If not, Malaysia probably just need to buy the technology, but I hope not and we should grow the local experts. [News: Japan on 25 July 2013 offered Malaysia the technology to build a multi-million-dollar high-speed railway and other infrastructure, as its Prime Minister Shinzo Abe began a regional tour. “Malaysia and Japan agree to cooperate in high technology with Japan providing the technology in the construction of high-speed rail, water and waste treatment,” Abe told reporters at a press conference with his Malaysian counterpart Najib Razak.]