The narrow-gauge steel rails, dating back to 1895, were part of a rail loop spanning several kilometres around the fort, running from Kedah Pier to Duke Street, with a spur line leading to the current site of Dewan Sri Pinang.

Preliminary checks suggest the trolley tracks were likely in use between the 1920s and 1930s.

However, during the Japanese occupation, the system is believed to have been used to transport ammunition from the port to the fort’s ramparts.

It was likely a manually operated trolley track, with an inscription on the rail indicating it was manufactured by Barrow Steel in the UK in 1895.

Chief minister Chow Kon Yeow said construction workers restoring the fort chanced upon the track embedded on the northwest portion of Esplanade Road on June 26, embedded below the road’s surface.

He said the workers were building a new pedestrian pavement when they discovered the tracks.

He said the government would study several options to conserve the tracks, including reviving the route.

“The national heritage department has agreed to preserve the tracks as an open-air exhibit,” he told reporters during a site visit.

Heritage conservationist Francesco Siravo, who is working on the restoration of Fort Cornwallis, said a similar train track was discovered by a restoration team in 2017-2018 in the fort’s courtyard.

He said the tracks within the fort were likely used to transport goods to the storeroom on the south side of the fort.

Siravo noted that the tracks were similar to those used during the peak of the Penang Hill funicular railway construction.

“This is an extraordinary find. It retains its original sleeper spacing and narrow gauge – a rare element of Penang’s wartime infrastructure,” he said.