KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA) has set up a dedicated team to facilitate, evaluate and review the implementation of the Economic Accelerator Projects (EAP) along the East Coast Railway Link (ECRL) corridor.
The agency said this is a follow up of the signing a Memorandum of Understanding with China Communications Construction Company Ltd (CCCC) on April 25, 2019 in Beijing, witnessed by Malaysia's Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamed and China's Premier Li Keqiang.
MIDA's team will engage facilitate development of industrial parks, logistics hub and transit-oriented development along the ECRL corridor, it said in a statement today.
Transit-oriented development (TOD) is a type of community development that includes a mixture of housing, office, retail and/or other amenities integrated into a walkable neighborhood and located within a half-mile of quality public transportation.
Under the original alignment, the 688km ECRL would pass through Kelantan, Terengganu, and Pahang before entering Selangor through Gombak before making its way to Serendah and Port Klang.
However, after a year of renegotiation, the new 640km ECRL alignment will now skip Bentong and Gombak.
It will, instead, turn south from Mentakab to Kuala Klawang in Negeri Sembilan before entering Selangor through Bangi/Kajang and then proceeding to Putrajaya Sentral and finally, Port Klang.
The railway track maintains the standard gauge design, and is 640km in length. The 160km/h train (80km/h max for freight) will pass through 20 stations from Kota Bharu in Kelantan to Port Klang in Selangor, and the journey will take four hours.
It will leverage the existing KLIA Express Rail Link, as well as the future MRT Line 2, with an interchange in Putrajaya Sentral and a direct link to the Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
MIDA described the ECRL project as a East-West rail transport network designed to stimulate commercial, logistic, trading and tourism development.
With foreign and domestic investments in TOD, MIDA hopes the ECRL would help bridge the development gap between the east and west coasts of Peninsular Malaysia.
MIDA and CCCC will promote the EAP to invite local and international investors to invest in these projects.
Both parties will also undertake capacity building activities to encourage the industrial and business communities to organise or participate in dialogues, workshops, seminars and conferences.