(Yicai Global) Dec. 18 -- China Railway Group and a Malaysian partner have penned a MYR6.45 billion (USD1.6 billion) deal with the Malaysian government to resume construction at Kuala Lumpur's largest undeveloped urban land plot after years of delay.

China Railway Engineering Malaysia and Iskandar Waterfront Holdings penned the deal with TRX City, a unit owned by the Malaysian Ministry of Finance, to pick up a 60 percent stake in the Bandar Malaysia project, China Railway Group said in a statement yesterday. The buyers will split the purchase equally.

The Bandar Malaysia mega complex spans 486 acres in downtown Kuala Lumpur and is to include an international finance hub, high-tech industrial park, exhibition center, cultural exchange center and tourist hotspots, as well as the proposed Kuala Lumpur-Singapore high-speed rail station, public information shows.

The two partners penned the same deal, worth MYR5.3 billion at the time, with TRX City's predecessor 1MDB Real Estate at the end of December 2015, but TRX scrapped the plan in May 2017.

It changed its mind on April 25 in Beijing this year, when it agreed to give China Railway Group and Iskandar Waterfront control of the project during the second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation.

The Belt and Road Initiative is China's vast plan for an infrastructure network spanning pipes, rails, roads and waterways across multiple continents. Its President Xi Jinping proposed the 30- to 40-year program in 2013.

Editor: James Boynton