The government will conduct a six-month study on the Johor Bahru-Singapore Rapid Transit System Link (RTS) project to determine whether it would be beneficial to the country, said Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

"The previous government have entered into some kind of agreement on several projects in Malaysia.

"We felt that the contracts were overpriced and there was some evidence of corruption and we decided long before we became the government to do away with the projects.

"However, doing away with the projects or cancelling them would involve very high compensation," he said at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan in Tokyo today.

Hence, Mahathir said the present government has decided to reduce the cost of the projects and renegotiate with the contractors, such as the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL), where the government managed to slash RM21 billion from the original cost.

"Now we also have other projects, which we may have to delay, either delay or reduce the scope or the cost. This is what we are doing, but we are doing through negotiations," he said.

Among others, he said, Malaysia needs two years to decide on the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High-Speed Rail (HSR) project.

"These are being settled amicably between the Malaysian government and the contractors of the previous government," added Mahathir.

- Bernama