He was accompanied by Raja Permaisuri Agong Tunku Azizah Aminah Maimunah Iskandariah at the ceremony held at the Section 10 ECRL station site in Gebeng here.
Also present were transport minister Loke Siew Fook, China’s ambassador to Malaysia Ouyang Yujin, Malaysia Rail Link Sdn Bhd (MRL) chairman Zuki Ali, China Communications Construction Company Ltd (CCCC) chairman Wang Tongzhou and the menteris besar from east coast states that the ECRL passes through.
The CCCC is the engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning contractor of the ECRL.
ECRL involves a 665km railway line with 20 stations — 10 passenger stations and 10 combined passenger and cargo stations. Seven of stations will be in Pahang, six in Terengganu, two in Kelantan and five in Selangor.
The mega project, inaugurated on Aug 9, 2017, at an estimated cost of RM50 billion, is scheduled to start operating in January 2027. The passenger trains will travel at a speed of 160kph and the freight trains at 80kph.
Today’s inauguration is also the key starting point for the installation of the 94km track from the Kuantan port city (KPC) station in Gebeng to Dungun, Terengganu. This is expected to take about three to four months to be completed.
The next track installation will involve the stretch from Kuantan port city station to Temerloh near here. It will then head northwards from Dungun to Kota Bharu, before the final stretch from Temerloh to Jalan Kastam, Selangor.
The installation process uses the CCPG500A track-laying machine, together with the 500m-long long-welded rail and pre-stressed mono-block sleepers.
These will ensure a solid foundation and reduce vibration when the train is moving for the comfort of passengers.
The equipment can also enable the track installation to proceed at a rate of 1.5km-2.5km per day. This is a significant increase compared to the conventional manual method of 500m-700m a day.
Six diesel locomotives measuring 22m in length and with a maximum speed of 100km per hour were brought in from China at the end of October to help with transporting materials.
56% of work completed
Meanwhile, Loke said 56% of the work on the ECRL project had been completed.
Once the project is completed, Loke said residents in Kuantan can travel to Kuala Lumpur in just one and a half hours, compared to three hours by road.
He said 23,000 workers were involved in carrying out work at 1,900 construction sites along the alignment.
A total of 26 tunnels have been excavated using the drill-and-blast method.
For the 16.4km Genting twin tunnel, drilling, blasting and a tunnel-boring machine are being employed. So far, 6km of the tunnel on both sides have been completed, with work to be completed in the second quarter of 2025.
As for work on the 145km ECRL flyover, Loke said flyover beams had so far covered 60km.
The contract value of local companies’ involvement in the ECRL project has reached RM12.99 billion, surpassing the set target of RM10.8 billion, Loke said.
A total of RM2.59 billion (or 74% of the target of RM3.5 billion) for ECRL civil works had been given to Bumiputera contractors, consultants and suppliers.
“Among the initiatives being taken is a collaboration with the state governments to screen Bumiputera contractor companies from the G1 and G2 categories, further opening up opportunities for them to jointly develop the ECRL project within a suitable scope of work.”
Loke added that as many as 2,800 local companies, consisting of contractors, consultants and suppliers, have been involved in the implementation of ECRL.
Loke said the ministry had recommended that a 50:50 joint venture company, between MRL and CCCC, be established in 2024.