Here’s an update on the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) project. Malaysia Rail Link (MRL) CEO Datuk Seri Darwis Abdul Razak says that overall progress is currently at 28.57%, including construction work in Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang and Selangor.
“Overall we do not face many problems. Alhamdulillah, many issues have been resolved with good cooperation from all parties, especially the state governments involved. For Kelantan, the ECRL alignment is 43.86 km, the progress of infrastructure works has reached 21.58% and the land acquisition process for the main alignment has been fully completed,” he told reporters in Kota Bharu yesterday, reported by Bernama.
The MRL chief said that the 665 km rail project is progressing well and is on track to be fully completed by December 2026, with operations expected to start in January 2027. A big chapter is coming soon, as construction of the 16.39 km Genting Tunnel from Pahang to Selangor will begin next month.
“The Genting Tunnel excavation process involving 10 km in Pahang and another six km in Selangor is expected to take two and a half years with a productivity rate of approximately between 400 to 600 metres per month,” Darwis said.
“The target of passengers is 5.6 million a year, each journey involves six carriages capable of carrying 440 passengers. However, the ticket price has yet to be decided, it depends on the government,” he added.
Here’s a recap on the ECRL. Some might remember the project being cancelled by the Pakatan Harapan government, and that happened in August 2018 soon after PH came into power. But after negotiations with China, the project was revived in April 2019 with a new cost of RM44 billion, a reduction of RM21.5 billion or 32.8%. The cost per km figure became RM68.7 million, down from RM95.5 million, the then government said.
With the cost reduction came a realignment. The new and shorter 640 km route with 20 stations does not bore through the Klang Gates Quartz Ridge in Gombak. From Mentakab in Pahang, it goes south into Negeri Sembilan (a new addition, making it five states plus Putrajaya) before heading to Port Klang via Bangi/Kajang and Putrajaya. The original route (688 km, 26 stops) was a more direct one through the main range via Bentong and Gombak, after Mentakab.
In September 2020, the Cabinet approved the reversion of the ECRL to its original alignment, as opposed to the southern alignment that goes to N9. This original route includes the double-bore Genting Tunnel from Bentong to Gombak – the longest rail tunnel in Malaysia – and a 14km long single-bore Serendah Tunnel from Gombak to Serendah.
Now, the final distance is 665 km and the total cost is RM50 billion. The use of a standard gauge track – which as its name suggests, is the common modern rail standard – opens the path for faster trains, of up to 300 km/h if the operator desires. ECRL passenger trains will run at 160 km/h and goods trains will go at half that speed.
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Syukurring it continues with original speedy route and not PH kebodohan topkek route that want to stop every state along the way. When Selangor finally changes back to BLUE, progress is complete.
Another white-elephant for loses
Funny… if it was a white elephant why Pakatan instead of cancelling they extended it further? Isn’t that a bigger white elephant or rather a white whale by Pakatan…
Pure stupidity umno bn projek. Loans from supreme almighty china …kontraktor n workers. mountain high debts , incoming bangkerap like Sri Lanka. Umno BN bringing the country down the drain …exactly like najip n his failed 1mdb. rakyat won’t forget 65yrs of inept incompetent gahmen n the plundering geng of umno bn idiots.
Guess only LRT Kelana-line not money-losing
Waste of money project when it’s only really heavily used once or twice a year and chances are it will be under flood waters half the time, needing unnecessarily high cost maintenance. Should have saved the money for the HSR, that would have brought us money from the singkies. Short-sightedness at its best, 50B hard earned Rakate tax money go to donkeys.
will ECRL service closed during annual monsoon flood season?
The interest alone is RM2b a year..With full capacity passengers and freight.. Also not enough to pay just interest…
Singapore port bring in about RM 72Bil annually. The ECRL could potentially halve that and shift that valuation to Port Klang bring us a potential annual return of RM 36Bil. That interest is peanuts compared to the volume of trade we could take off Singapore.
And Singaporean later on steal our subsidies and you praised them like they never stole anything
wtf are you talking about, what he said was obviously the same as you. singapore EARNED 72B
Whatever big project from kerajaan is only money survive for their party…They only think about how to get money by doing big projek and appoint their contractor..no project no money…
So you think PH never did same thing?