Malaysia to issue 1.65 billion U.S. dollars in bonds to fund train project

Malaysia's state-owned public transport operator Syarikat Prasarana Negara said in Kuala Lumpur on Friday that it planned to issue five billion ringgit (1. 65 billion U.S. dollars) Islamic bond next year to raise fund for its light rail transit extension project.

Zulkifli Yusoff, its director of project development division, said total budget for the project was seven billion ringgit (2.31 billion U.S. dollars) but the company had earlier raised two billion ringgit (660.06 million U.S. dollars), which would be sufficient for this year's project.

The company owns and operates the two light rail transit lines in Malaysia. The extension project involves construction of additional 34.7 kilometers line for the existing lines.

Both lines will have a common station.

"The targeted completion date is mid-2014 for both extension lines," said Zulkifli, adding that testing of the extended lines would be carried out early and would take approximately six months to complete.

Construction works of the extension project would commence by end of this month, and jobs for extension of the lines were expected to be fully tendered out within this year, including the tender for new trains, said Zulkifli.

Source: Xinhua

	Weekly review