Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's announcement of the award of the shelved double tracking project on March 16 invoked the nightmarish abuse of power by former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad in the lingering days of his reign on this massive project.

On Oct 22, 2003, only nine days before Mahathir stepped down, the project was abruptly and clandestinely awarded to the MMC Corp Bhd-Gamuda Bhd consortium at the price of RM14.5 billion, despite the existence then of un-revoked letters of intent, issued earlier to state-owned Indian Railway Construction Co (Ircon) and state owned China Railway Engineering

Corp (CREC). Both having worked on the investigations and design of this project for years under a government-to-government agreement.

The circumstances under which this 2003 award was made were most dubious.