Rep blasts lack of details over ECRL reversion to BN-era alignment
Banting assemblyperson Lau Weng San has criticised the lack of details over the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) project reversion to the BN-era alignment.
He said while Transport Minister Wee Ka Siong has posted slides on Facebook justifying why the reversion was better, concrete information was lacking.
"Justification with solid researches and feasibility studies are needed as ECRL has never been an affordable project in the first place.
"Despite all the slides published by the minister in his social media platform, no further citation was quoted to reflect and strengthen their arguments.
"In short, what Wee said...
Banting assemblyperson Lau Weng San has criticised the lack of details over the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) project reversion to the BN-era alignment.
He said while Transport Minister Wee Ka Siong has posted slides on Facebook justifying why the reversion was better, concrete information was lacking.
"Justification with solid researches and feasibility studies are needed as ECRL has never been an affordable project in the first place.
"Despite all the slides published by the minister in his social media platform, no further citation was quoted to reflect and strengthen their arguments.
"In short, what Wee said publicly or posted in social media are bare talks or political rhetoric," Lau (above) said in a statement.
For example, he said the claim that the BN-era northern alignment will affect a few Orang Asli and Malay reserve land is not backed up with details on the number of households affected nor the acreage of those lands.
"For the southern alignment, most of these works are almost completed and the figure presented is close to accurate. The same cannot be said for the northern alignment," said the DAP lawmaker.
The Perikatan Nasional-controlled Putrajaya has been pushing the Pakatan Harapan-led Selangor government to approve the northern alignment.
However, Selangor wants the southern alignment which was unveiled when Harapan led the federal government.
The project links Port Klang to Kuantan Port, forming a land bridge across the west coast and east coast of Peninsular Malaysia and also connects to Terengganu and Kelantan.
The two alignments diverge from Mentakab in Pahang. The northern alignment travels to Port Klang through Bentong, Gombak and Serendah while the southern alignment sees the ECRL travel south from Mentakab into Negeri Sembilan, then to Putrajaya-Bangi and on to Port Klang.
The Harapan government argued that the southern alignment will allow more states to enjoy the economic spillover and also integrate with existing transportation hubs in Putrajaya. It also avoids Klang Gates Quartz Ridge in the north which requires costly tunnelling works.
However, the PN government argued that the ECRL is intended for transporting more goods and the northern alignment will provide for cargo demand.
However, Lau questioned the claim that the northern alignment would be able to serve 26 million tonnes of cargo within the first year of operations.
He said the figure is four times KTMB Keretapi Tanah Melayu Bhd's nationwide capacity.
"One must not forget that Penang Port is currently the third-largest deepwater seaport in Malaysia and is handling about 1.5 million TEUs containers annually (full capacity of a twenty-foot container is about 50,000lb or 23 metric tonnes), which has been on an increasing trend since 10 years ago.
"The Transport Ministry must explain how these figures can be translated into 26 million metric tonnes of cargo annually in 2027," he said.
Lau also raised doubts about the costing figure bandied around by the Transport Ministry.
"There will be more civil engineering works under the new version of northern alignment, which includes tunnelling cost and the construction of the two draw bridges linking Jalan Kastam station with both North Port and West Port.
"It is public knowledge that tunnelling cost is always an expensive element in any civil engineering works. Also, land acquisition for the northern alignment largely consists of residential, commercial and industrial lands whereas there are more agricultural land on the southern alignment.
"Until and unless the Transport Ministry reveals more information, the statement that ECRL2.0 to cost only RM50 billion - lower than the cost of ECRL2.0 through the southern alignment and the construction of Serendah bypass combined - does not hold water," he said.
Furthermore, he said land acquisition for the southern alignment was done in 2019 and valuations will therefore be based on two years ago, compared to the current value if land acquisition for the northern alignment is done now.
He added the southern alignment is strategically positioned to serve Nilai which is an industrial zone and also the Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
Lau said International Trade and Industry Minister Azmin Ali should speak up about the reverted alignment as the southern one was conceived when he was the economic affairs minister.
He also urged PAS' Sijangkang assemblyperson Ahmad Yunus Khairi and Kuala Langat MP Xavier Jayakumar, who defected from PKR to support PN, to weigh in as their constituencies stand to lose out with the northern alignment.
Malaysiakini has contacted Wee's office for response.
