The Ipoh-Padang Besar electrified railway double tracking project will be completed according to schedule in 2013, said Transport Minister Ong Tee Keat.

He said that although the project had faced some slight delays following problems in land acquisition, it would not affect the overall schedule.

"The progress target in November 2009 should have been 47.2 percent but we only achieved 34.3 percent. This was a deviation of 12.8 percent," he told reporters after handing over compassionate aid to squatters affected by the project in Butterworth today.

A total of 131 squatters received RM42,000 each at the function.

Ong projected the deviation in the schedule to drop from 12.8 percent to five per cent once the land acquisition problems were settled.

"It does not mean if delays are encountered the project cannot be completed according to schedule. We can speed up laying of the tracks," he said, adding that project work on the tracks undertaken by MMC-Gamuda JV was now proceeding smoothly in Perak, Kedah, Penang and Perlis.

The project involving electrified double tracking over a distance of 329 kilometres costs RM12.485 billion.

It is a continuation of the double tracking project from Rawang to Ipoh, which was fully completed on Dec 31 2007.

- Bernama