KUALA LUMPUR, July 24 — China Communications Construction East Coast Railway Link (ECRL) Sdn Bhd (CCCECRL) have started recruiting and rehiring workers for the country’s largest infrastructure project due to be relaunched officially tomorrow.

According to The Star, the main contractor for the ECRL in charge of engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning contractor said they already received 13,000 applications so far.

"We need contractor managers, quantity surveyors, HR managers (and executives), health, safety and environment (HSE) managers and executives, senior engineers, site engineers, quality assurance engineers, planning managers, investment managers, relocation managers, senior architects, trilingual translators (Malay-English-Mandarin), technicians, administrative managers and skilled workers such as welders and machinery operators,” an official was quoted saying in The Star.

When work on the ECRL had been suspended in July last year, many workers left due to uncertainty.

At its peak, 2,250 people — 70 per cent of whom were Malaysian — worked on the ECRL.

Since the rehiring drive began following Malaysia and China’s agreement to resume the ECRL, 291 have been recruited to last week to bring the current workforce to 1,036.

"I’m glad to be back,” said Mohd Asri Alias, a former quality assurance manager who quit in September last year and rejoined as an engineer in the same field.

Another returnee Mohd Salahuddin Yaakob, told The Star he did not even read the terms and conditions before accepting the offer as he had been jobless for 10 months after being laid off last year.

Transport Minister Anthony Loke will re-launch the project officially at an event in Dungun, Terengganu tomorrow.

In April, Putrajaya announced the improved deal with China on the ECRL, which involved a supplementary agreement between Malaysia Rail Link Sdn Bhd (MRL) and the China Communications Construction Company Ltd (CCCC) following months of negotiations.

The construction cost for Phases 1 and 2 of the ECRL was reduced to RM44 billion from its original cost of RM65.5 billion.