KUANTAN: The East Coast Rail Link (ECRL), a mega-rail project which was relaunched in 2019, enters a new phase with the 90km-track laying works between Gebeng to Dungun to begin at the end of this year.
Malaysia Rail Link Sdn Bhd (MRL) regional construction manager (Pahang) Khairi Khalid Abdul Rahman said the track laying works between ECRL's KPC (Kuantan Port City) station in Gebeng here and Dungun, Terengganu will take between three to four months to complete.
"The track laying machines will be arriving by November this year and it will lay around 1.5km of tracks per day. After completing the KPC and Dungun stretch, the machines will progress to the next stage to lay the tracks between Gebeng and Temerloh.
"Pahang will be the first state for the track laying process whereby the machines will begin work between the KPC station and Dungun," he told reporters after attending the 'Aidilfitri bersama ECRL' open house hosted by MRL at a hotel here today.
On why Pahang was picked as the first state for the track laying works, Khairi Khalid said it was in line with the project's initial plan to have materials, including those for the track laying base, arrive at Kuantan Port, which is located close to the KPC station.
Meanwhile, he said the construction of the ECRL project in Pahang has reached 43 percent till April this year and was progressing smoothly towards the Jan 1, 2027 operation of the ECRL.
He said the ECRL project in Pahang , spanning about 230km involves 152km of at grade (at the same level) alignment and the balance consisting of tunnels and bridges.
"To date, ECRL has broke through 20 of the 33 tunnels in Pahang while the excavation works of the 16.39km twin-bore Genting Tunnel has achieved more than 2.5 km on each tunnel. The railway bridge construction works are ongoing and currently the beam construction works are being carried out.
"Two beam launcher machines are stationed in Pahang with one in Kuantan and another in Temerloh. Construction works at the major railway bridges across Sungai Pahang (Temerloh) and Sungai Kuantan is already in the final stages and will be completed by the end of this year," he said.
On manpower, Khairi Khalid said the number of workers for the entire ECRL project is expected to increase to 23,000 by the end of this phase as compared to the estimated 19,000 workers involved in the project currently.
"Forty percent or 8,000 workers are currently stationed at the construction sites across Pahang and the increase in manpower later this year is in line with the railway station construction and track laying works," he said.
The 665km-long ECRL, which was initially launched in 2017, will traverse the east coast states of Pahang, Kelantan and Terengganu through to the Klang Valley.