Transport minister hopes Selangor will agree to restoration of northern alignment in ECRL 3.0, says followed all due procedures

PUTRAJAYA, April 5 — Transport Minister Datuk Seri Wee Ka Siong said he hoped that the Selangor government will cooperate with the federal government and give the northern alignment of the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) project its nod, saying that all due procedures have already been observed.

Calling it ECRL 3.0, owing to several changes in its original construction plan to date, Wee also cautioned about further increased cost, should the said project face prolonged delays.

“We have started the arrangement since June 25, we have been waiting for months, and we were ready for the Selangor Economic Action Council (MTES) presentation since November.

He lamented that due to “some political reasons”, the ministry had initially failed to get the Selangor government’s support, for what he labelled as a “two in one solution” which poses maximum benefit.

“Let me ask you this question. What is the purpose of the National Physical Planning Council? The meeting was chaired by the prime minister and attended by all the chief ministers and mentris besar. That is basically to coordinate all the big, mega infrastructure projects and the Ministry of Transport (MoT) had met various representatives of each and every agency, including my ministry’s chief secretary.

“He attended and it was discussed there, and it was a decision by the council to submit this to Cabinet for a decision, and a decision has been made by the Cabinet on September 2. So it was a decision by Cabinet already and of course before tabling in the Cabinet, we had to go through the National Physical Planning Council and we have gone through all the process. So this does not only involve one state, it involves other states as well,” he said during a press conference here.

Wee had earlier announced the realignment of the ECRL’s Section C to the original route approved under the previous Barisan Nasional (BN) government.

He said the Cabinet approved the realignment during a meeting on September 2 last year.

“As I said, I already obtained a green light from the Cabinet. There is no choice. We have to do it.

‘And I sincerely hope the state government, in view of the impact of this ECRL 3.0, which is to give the maximum benefit to the Serendah area, can consider Serendah as their cargo hub, multi-model transportation hub, and the potential is there,” he added.

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