Spanning a total of 665km, ECRL 3.0 will revert to the northern alignment to connect Pahang and Selangor as previously planned by the Barisan Nasional administration and cost RM50 billion.

Construction will take seven years and the ECRL will be operational in 2027.

At a press conference today, transport minister Wee Ka Siong said the government decided on the northern alignment following discussions with the relevant stakeholders, including state governments, local councils and industry players.

The 201km northern alignment, which connects Mentakab to Port Klang through Bentong, Gombak, and Serendah, will replace the southern alignment which travels through Negeri Sembilan.

Wee said the northern alignment improves the project’s sustainability and will have greater benefits for the public and the economy.

“This alignment involves the construction of seven stations over a long period of time with five stations being built during the early stages. These are the Temerloh, Bentong, ITT Gombak, Serendah Baru and Jalan Kastam stations,” he said.

Two more stations – in Puncak Alam and Kapar – will be built later on.

Wee also said the estimated cost for ECRL 3.0 is lower than its previous iteration under the Pakatan Harapan (PH) administration.

“Some might say that the RM50 billion appears to be more than the RM47.38 billion figure (under PH) but we are actually building two infrastructure projects for the price of one,” he said.

He said that under the southern alignment, the Serendah Bypass, estimated to cost RM5 billion, was not factored in and this would mean the total costs for the southern alignment would come to RM52.28 billion.

“The RM50 billion cost for ECRL 3.0 includes the costs of the Serendah Bypass.”

Wee said the RM50 billion figure was also cheaper than the BN government’s RM55 billion estimate.

Currently, the project is 21.39% complete.