He said the project would change the economic landscape of the states in many ways.

“If we want a particular region to develop, we must link it to all areas in the country.

“Transportation that links one region to the other areas will bring very significant changes,” he said at the groundbreaking ceremony for the ECRL project at the Kelantan state level in Tunjong here today.

The RM55 billion ECRL project involves a 688km route linking Port Klang, Selangor with Pahang, Terengganu and Kelantan.

The project, which also involves 28 stations with passenger and cargo rail services, is expected to be ready by June 2024.

“In the US, the west side area developed because of the availability of railway communication, and so were the wild west or cowboy areas such as the ones in California and so on, because the pioneers had railway communication.

“The same is true in other areas in the world, where efficient railway services that are modern and dependable have been injected in the development of a particular region,” Najib added.

He said in the context of Kelantan, the ECRL would speed up travelling time especially from Kota Bharu to Kuala Lumpur and vice versa.