Damansara Utama assemblywoman Yeo Bee Yin, who has made several statements on the project previously, said the cost just to build a single track rail line was too high.
She pointed out that the Gemas-Johor Baru rail double tracking project covering 191km and which was awarded in February 2017 cost RM8.9 billion or roughly RM46 million per km, half the price of the ECRL single tracking project.
“If it is a single track, you will see delays in service delivery moving forward. We need to seek justification from the government as to why we should pay a very high price just to experience this service delay,” she said at a media conference here today.
Yeo spoke on the project following the release of the executive summary of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report on the ECRL two weeks ago.
The EIA report states the ECRL will be an electrified single track railway line built on a double track formation.
Yeo said the revelation contradicted the information provided during the public display of the project which clearly gave the impression that the ECRL would be a double-tracking project.
In the interest of transparency, Yeo said, the government should also publish a detailed breakdown of the estimated cost of the entire ECRL, including the cost of the seven segments of the ECRL and the six spur lines.
The ECRL was announced by Prime Minister Najib Razak when he tabled Budget 2017 last October.
ECRL will link Port Klang through to Kuantan in Pahang and up to Terengganu, ending at Tumpat in Kelantan.
Work on the project is scheduled to begin in July and construction is expected to be completed in June 2024.