KUALA SELANGOR, July 26 — Preliminary investigations have revealed that the sinkhole near Bentong toll plaza at Kilometre (KM) 66.1 of the Kuala Lumpur-Karak Highway was caused by the construction of the East Coast Rail Link (RCRL) underground tunnel, Works Minister Datuk Seri Alexander Nanta Linggi said.

He added that repair work is expected to be completed this evening and the route can be reopened by 7pm.

"I’m rather pleased with the swift remedial action taken, and we can expect the road to be used by 7pm,” he told reporters after visiting the construction work at Section of the West Coast Expressway (WCE) here today.

He said that the WCE, stretching from Banting, Selangor to South Taiping, Perak, was 88 per cent complete.

"Overall, the project covers 233km, of which 88km is toll-free.

"The construction progress was slightly delayed by land acquisition issues. Initially the cost of land acquisition was estimated to be around RM980 million but it finally ended up to be over RM2 billion. All this has been resolved,” Alexander added.

Meanwhile, Malaysia Rail Link Sdn Bhd (MRL), owner of the ECRL project, said today that investigations into the real cause of the sinkhole were still ongoing.

MRL said their engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning (EPCC) contractor had promptly notified the highway concessionaire, ANIH Berhad after detecting soil settlement in the vicinity through its monitoring system for the underground tunneling works.

"Our EPCC contractor promptly notified ANIH Bhd to close the affected area to traffic. This was undertaken before the sinkhole emerged, allowing for the prompt implementation of necessary mitigating measures,” MRL said in a statement today, adding that its project team dispatched machinery and manpower to initiate works in covering the sinkhole and repairs were progressing as planned and would be completed by 7pm today.

The Works Ministry also issued a statement today stating that a comprehensive investigation will be conducted as a long-term remedial measure. The investigation will be under the Malaysian Highway Authority with cooperation of all parties involved and the area will be monitored continuously to detect any underground soil movement. — Bernama