KUANTAN: The East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) project's Kuantan Tunnel breakthrough is scheduled to be achieved in October this year before the 2.8km tunnel is fully completed in the first quarter of 2023.
The Kuantan Tunnel, located in Jabor, near here, is the longest among the ECRL tunnels in Section B, which also includes the 1.1km Paka Tunnel and 871m Dungun Tunnel, both in Terengganu.
Malaysia Rail Link Sdn Bhd (MRL) regional construction manager (Pahang) Khairi Khalid Abdul Rahman said once the breakthrough is achieved, the tunnel's permanent lining will be fully laid out.
"The Kuantan tunnel breakthrough is expected to be completed in October, while the permanent lining (which is currently ongoing as the excavation progresses) will be done within three to four months.
"A total of 36 tunnels will be built for the ECRL project in Pahang and to date, five tunnel breakthroughs have been achieved but it mostly involves short tunnels measuring between 190m and 600m," he told reporters after attending the Aidilfitri open house hosted by ECRL at a hotel here today.
Also present were Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Wan Rosdy Wan Ismail and MRL chief executive officer Datuk Seri Darwis Abdul Razak.
The drilling and blasting work for the 11.8m diameter Kuantan tunnel project, which began on Oct 7, 2019, adopts the New Austrian Tunnelling Method (NATM), which is the world's most widely used underground construction method.
The project utilised the Swedish-manufactured double-arm jumbo drilling machine, with tunnelling work commencing from both directions, to meet in the middle.
Meanwhile, Khairi Khalid said the 16.39km Genting Tunnel excavation works in Bentong which will commence this month is scheduled to be completed in 2024.
"Works at the Genting tunnel construction site began in 2021 but the two tunnel boring machines (TBM) will only begin excavating this month. The machines will carve out access through the Titiwangsa range to connect Bentong with Gombak and the breakthrough will be completed in more than two years," he said.
The two TBMs, reputed to be the biggest of its kind in Southeast Asia for rail construction, can bore a maximum distance of 700m each month.
On the overall progress of ECRL, Khairi Khalid said the 665km rail project has achieved 28.57 per cent until March this year and despite the challenges posed by the uncertain weather, works in Pahang were progressing smoothly according to schedule.
The 210km Dungun-Mentakab main line is also known as Section B while the other sections of the stretch include Kota Baru to Dungun (Section A) and Mentakab to Port Klang (Section C).
The ECRL, launched in 2017 and scheduled for completion by December 2026, will traverse the east coast states of Kelantan, Terengganu and Pahang through to the Klang Valley.