KUANTAN: The installation of the first East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) track is scheduled to start at the end of this year involving the route from Gebeng, Pahang to Dungun, Terengganu.
Malaysia Rail Link Sdn Bhd (MRL) regional construction manager (Pahang) Khairi Khalid Abdul Rahman said this involves a 90km route and is expected to take three to four months before the installation work continues from Gebeng to Maran.
"We hope to lay 1.5km of track per day for the Gebeng to Dungun route. The installation work starts in Gebeng because the equipment used, including track-laying machines from China, are coming here in line with the project planning.
"All equipment will arrive at Kuantan Port between October or November for track installation to begin in Pahang," he said when met at the Aidilfitri Open House of ECRL here on Wednesday (May 17).
Also present was Pahang Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Wan Rosdy Wan Ismail who also presented duit raya to 30 orphans from Permata Al Kauthar Muqarrabin.
Khairi Khalid said out of the total 665km of ECRL alignment, 231km is located in Pahang involving about 152km of level track with the rest over bridges and through tunnels.
As for the work on bridges, Khairi Khalid said the installation of viaduct beams is progressing well with about 5km of the bridge route in Pahang done so far.
"There are two beam installation machines called beam launchers, namely in Kuantan for Sungai Kuantan and in Temerloh for work on Sungai Pahang. We expect the bridge to be completed by the end of this year or early 2024," he said.
As for the Genting Twin Tunnel, which will be the longest rail tunnel in Southeast Asia when it is completed, Khairi Khalid said that so far, the tunnel excavation that crosses the Titiwangsa Range has reached more than 2.5 km for each tunnel.
The tunnel excavation, which uses a tunnel boring machine (TBM) as opposed to drilling and blasting methods, started last June and is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2025. – Bernama
