ERE Consulting Group has secured the social impact assessment (SIA) contract from MyHSR for the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High Speed Rail (KL-SG HSR) project.

The company won the contract via an open tender process, which was initiated in November last year.

ERE is set to conduct an assessment of the KL-SG HSR project’s potential social impact on Malaysia under the arrangement.

"The appointed consultant will be responsible to assess the possible social impact arising from the three phases of the KL-SG HSR project."

The scope of the study will also include a heritage impact assessment to ensure that the high-speed rail project complies with all relevant policies and regulations.

MyHSR CEO Dato’ Mohd Nur Ismal Mohamed Kamal said: “The appointed consultant will be responsible to assess the possible social impact arising from the three phases of the KL-SG HSR project, which encompasses the pre-construction, construction and operational phase.

“They will analyse all the feedback received from the Public Inspection exercise and will be conducting additional surveys and focus group discussions along the alignment.”

A series of effective mitigation measures are expected to be formulated based on the assessment in order to reduce any identified social impacts on the affected communities.

MyHSR will continue to work with PLANMalaysia to prepare the SIA study.

ERE previously carried out social impact assessments for the Sungai Buloh –Kajang MRT Line, the Sungai Buloh – Serdang– Putrajaya MRT Line, as well as the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) Phase 1 and Phase 2.

MyHSR will be responsible for the development and implementation of the KL-SG HSR project.

The organisation was originally incorporated as 2015 and is wholly owned by the Malaysia’s Minister of Finance.