Newsbreak: ECRL could see change in alignment again

A plan is being mooted by a clutch of officials in the high levels of the Ministry of Transport (MoT) to change the East Coast Railway Line’s (ECRL) alignment yet again. The consideration is to revert to the original alignment that was proposed by the Barisan Nasional (BN) government, sources familiar with the matter tell The Edge.

It is understood that the proposal has been discussed in a national council meeting chaired by Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin recently.

“We do not know how serious the plan is or whether it will reach the Cabinet even, but we do know it is being talked about,” an official of Malaysia Rail Link Sdn Bhd (MRL) familiar with the discussions says on condition of anonymity. MRL is the project and asset owner of the ECRL, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Minister of Finance Inc.

The Edge understands that the changes being mooted are mainly in Section C of the project, which is the portion of the railway track in the Klang Valley that connects to Port Klang.

The 690km-long ECRL project consists of three sections: Section A, which runs from Kota Bharu in Kelantan to Dungun in Terengganu; Section B, from Dungun to Mentakab in Pahang; and Section C, straddling Mentakab to Port Klang in Selangor.

Minister of Transport Datuk Seri Wee Ka Siong, who is also president of the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA), is understood to have brought up the proposal to restore the ECRL to its old alignment.

When contacted, Wee says the government is evaluating the options for the alignment, adding that the new one suggested by the then chairman of the Council of Eminent Persons Tun Daim Zainuddin was a not  fixed alignment but a proposal.