A source close to the matter told FMT that Selangor would be finalising an agreement on the alignment tomorrow.
“Basically, yes. The Selangor menteri besar is expected to make further announcements on the matter tomorrow,” said the source when asked whether Selangor agreed with the original plan for the line which had been put forward by the BN administration.
Members of the media have received an invitation to a signing ceremony tomorrow between Malaysia Rail Link Sdn Bhd (MRL), the owner of the ECRL project, and China Communications Construction Company Ltd (CCCC), the main contractor of the RM50 billion project.
The event will be held at a hotel in Kuala Lumpur at 2.30pm.
Selangor menteri besar Amirudin Shari is expected to attend the ceremony along with transport minister Wee Ka Siong and Chinese ambassador to Malaysia Ouyang Yujing.
Prior to this, Selangor had insisted on the southern alignment for the ECRL, which would see it cross the Kuala Langat North forest reserve. It’s stand came after the previous Perikatan Nasional-led (PN) government said in April that the ECRL should follow the original suggestion put forward by BN.
Based on the original alignment, the ECRL will pass through Kelantan, Terengganu and Pahang before entering Selangor from the north, passing through Gombak before heading to Serendah and Port Klang.
The former PH administration had previously pushed to change the alignment so that the line would not go through Bentong and Gombak as originally planned as PH wanted to avoid the construction of a costly 17.8km-long tunnel through the Klang Gates Quartz Ridge – which would have made it the longest in the world.
The southern alignment proposal was also to reduce the ECRL distance by 40km, resulting in a reduction in cost of about RM20 billion.
It was previously reported that the ECRL would ferry an estimated 5.03 million passengers per year if the northern alignment was followed, compared with 4.07 million for the southern alignment.
The northern alignment will see 26.12 million tonnes of cargo being shipped, which is close to three times more than the nine million tonnes of cargo that is estimated to be shipped via the southern alignment.