BENTONG, April 11 — Transport Minister Anthony Loke said the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) project was 42 per cent complete and on track to be operational by early 2027.

"I am pleased to inform you that the construction work of the 665km long ECRL project — which crosses four states, namely, Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang and Selangor — is actively underway and has achieved progress of 42.06 percent as of March 2023.

"The level of progress recorded is in line with the completion schedule of the project alignment ECRL from Kota Baru, Kelantan to ITT Gombak, Selangor in December 2026,” he said at a press conference after visiting Genting Tunnel construction site.

He said the Genting Tunnel, a 16.39km twin-tunnel design, was one of the project’s biggest challenges.

"The Genting Tunnel is the first ECRL tunnel excavated using an advanced tunnel boring machine method compared to the drilling and blasting method that has been used for existing tunnels for the ECRL project.

"The construction of the Genting Tunnel is a key component of the ECRL project because it completes the land bridge or ‘landbridge’ for the transport of cargo from Port Kuantan to Port Klang and can continue to connect passengers from the East Coast states to Gombak,” he added.

Announced in 2016, the ECRL is the flagship project of China’s Belt-Road Initiative in Malaysia that would link the major ports of the peninsula’s east and west coasts.

Construction began on August 2017, but had been halted following Malaysia's change of government in 2018 before being resumed in 2019.