KUANTAN – The installation of the first track of the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) project will begin tomorrow, three years before the 665-km railway line that connects the East Coast and West Coast is planned to start operating in January 2027.
The Yang di-Pertuan Agong, Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah, is set to grace the ceremony to install the first ECRL track at the Section 10 ECRL Station Site in Gebeng here.
In May, Malaysia Rail Link Sdn Bhd (MRL) regional construction manager (Pahang) Khairi Khalid Abdul Rahman was quoted as saying that the installation of the first track would involve the 90-km route from Gebeng to Dungun, Terengganu, and is expected to be completed in three to four months.
The track installation is expected to proceed at a rate of 1.5km per day and Gebeng is the first location, considering that the materials used, including diesel locomotives made by CRRC Ziyang, China to launch the installation process, were brought to Malaysia using cargo docked at the Kuantan Port.
The ECRL is a project owned by MRL, which is a special purpose vehicle (SPV) company wholly owned by the Minister of Finance Incorporated while China Communications Construction Company Ltd (CCCC) is the project’s engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning contractor.
The ECRL, which starts in Kota Bharu, Kelantan and ends in the Klang Valley, Selangor, will become a national infrastructure that connects major cities and towns, as well as improves the public transport system in the rural areas in all four states that it passes through.
The construction is divided into three sections, namely Section A from Kota Bharu to Dungun, Section B from Dungun to Mentakab, Pahang and Section C from Mentakab to Port Klang, with a total of 20 stations and 40 tunnels with a distance of over 60-km.
With the passenger trains travelling at a speed of 160 kph and the freight trains at 80 kph, the travelling time from Kelantan to the Klang Valley can be cut to around four hours compared to seven hours by road, which can reach 12 hours during the festive season.
In addition to being a catalyst for the economic equality of the West Coast and East Coast and spurring commercial activities, the implementation of ECRL will also open job opportunities, with about 23,000 workers needed during the peak period of its construction and also involving the participation of 40% of local contractors for civil works estimated to be worth up to RM10 billion.
The mega project, which was inaugurated on August 9 2017, was also slightly affected by the change of government in 2018, including its suspension for nine months. However, it then resumed with a new alignment from Kota Bharu-Mentakab-Jelebu-Kuala Klawang (Negeri Sembilan)-Bangi-Kajang (Selangor)-Putrajaya-Port Klang.
However, in March 2021, the federal government announced that the ECRL line would return to the original alignment, which is through Section C (Mentakab-Port Klang) after taking into account surveys and studies to make the ECRL, estimated to be worth RM50 billion, a more efficient national rail transport.
To avoid recurring alignment problems, the ECRL project route was finalised in 2022 with the then Minister of Transport signing the full approval of the C2 Line Railway Scheme, which was submitted by MRL, as the owner of the ECRL project, through the Land Public Transport Agency (Apad). – December 10, 2023