KUANTAN: The East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) 94km-track installation works between the Kuantan Port City (KPC) station in Gebeng here and Dungun, Terengganu which began last month has achieved 41.5 per cent progress.
ECRL Section 10 general manager Wu Lizhu said as of yesterday, 39km from the total 94km of the first ECRL track laying stretch has been completed.
"The track laying works began on Dec 11 last year and are anticipated to be completed within the next three to four months. The installation process uses the CCPG-500A track laying machine which achieves a rate of between 1.5km and 2km per day.
"Once the track works to Dungun is completed, the track laying machine will install the tracks between KPC and Temerloh involving 104km followed by Dungun to Kota Baru (210km) before the final stretch from Temerloh to Jalan Kastam, Selangor (192 km)," he told reporters during a media trip to KPC here yesterday.
Meanwhile Wu said the track laying machines will put together the 500m-long rail which is welded at KPC here along with the prestressed mono-block sleepers.
"The length of the rail imported from China is about 25km long and the pieces are put together at the rail welding workshop at KPC. This will consist of other processes including stabilising and grinding the rails.
"Once the welding works are over, the 500m rail will be transported using a 580m-long flat wagon pulled by the diesel locomotive to the sites. The 500m rail will be placed at the front of the track laying machine and this process will be followed with installing the concrete sleepers," he said.
On the challenges for the track laying process, Wu said installation work has been going on smoothly according to schedule and there are no issues with the current monsoon weather.
"The weather does not pose much challenge but despite using machines at the sites, we have to consider the human beings and their safety on the ground… especially working at the site during unpredictable weather conditions," he said.
ECRL, the country's mega-rail project, entered a new era last month when Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri'ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah graced the official inauguration of the first track-laying ceremony at KPC here.
The track installation and transportation works were facilitated by six customised diesel locomotives measuring 22m in length with a maximum speed of 100km per hour which arrived at KPC in October last year.
Upon completion at the end of 2026, the 665km-long ECRL will traverse through the east coast states of Pahang, Kelantan and Terengganu and through to the Klang Valley. The ECRL passenger trains can travel at a speed of 160km per hour while the freight trains travel at 80km per hour.