New ECRL route will cost users more travel time, says Najib

Updated 5 years ago · Published on 13 Apr 2019 8:20PM · 4 Comments

Najib Razak pans the Pakatan Harapan government's move to revise the ECRL project's lane. – The Malaysian Insight file pic, April 13, 2019.

Najib Razak said that the Pakatan Harapan government’s revised East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) project has lost its purpose of cutting travel time once the track is realigned.

The former prime minister said the previous Barisan Nasional government had run the track line through Gombak to Kota Baru as it wanted to cut travel time to both places by four hours.

The Pekan MP said it would take an average of seven hours to travel from Gombak to Kota Baru by road.

“That is why the alignment cut through the Titiwangsa range through Bentong to Gombak,” Najib said in a Facebook post.

He said the latest alignment would require those living in Kuala Lumpur to first travel south and board the ECRL at either the Putrajaya or Bangi station in order to go north.

“PH likes U-turns, so PH is also forcing the people of KL to make a big U-turn if they want to head to the east coast,” he wrote in jest.

Yesterday Putrajaya’s special envoy Daim Zainuddin announced the new and cheaper ECRL line which is 40km shorter and included stops in Negri Sembilan to reduce costs.
Speaking to the media in Beijing after signing the re-negotiated deal, Daim said a main stopover in Gombak had been scrapped.

The new route is through Kota Baru-Mentakab-Jelebu-Kuala Kelawang-Bangi / Kajang-Putrajaya-Pelabuhan Klang.

Under the new deal, the construction cost of Phases 1 and 2 has been reduced to RM44 billion – a RM21.5 billion reduction from the original RM65.5 billion.

“This new cost is easy for Malaysia to manage, and will reduce the interest that we have to pay,” said Daim.

Najib today admitted that the plans to penetrate through the Titiwangsa Range for a tunnel route to Bentong was the most expensive part of the project.

“PH will no longer build a few tunnels and bridges including the longest tunnel as I have mentioned, all to lower the cost from RM55 billion to RM44 billion. Maybe PH has a phobia towards building a tunnel,” he said in his post. – April 13, 2019.

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Comments

  • Screw u

    Posted 5 years ago by Lan Lan · Reply

  • We do not have big heads, so no need to wear big hats.

    Posted 5 years ago by Tanahair Ku · Reply

  • STFU....asshole...

    Posted 5 years ago by The Lone Ranger ... · Reply

  • The new route will bring development via new areas instead of concentration via Bentong route that has already improved over the long period of time. The cost reduction is the way to go.

    Posted 5 years ago by Citizen Pencen · Reply