ECRL could be 'Truly Malaysia-owned' 

KUALA LUMPUR (August 29): Malaysia has the capability to take on the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) development, making it a “truly Malaysia-owned” project, and keeping costs low, say industry players.

The NST reports that the industry players say the move could see companies from different sectors to work together on the project.

Eversendai Corp Bhd executive chairman and group managing director Tan Sri A.K. Nathan was quoted as saying the track record of Malaysian companies, especially when it comes to mega infrastructure projects locally and overseas, displayed their capabilities.

“We could make it our own, a truly Malaysia-owned (project). Malaysians have the talent and skills to implement the ECRL. They have the capabilities and expertise to keep costs down and offer competitive pricing for the project to be developed.

“They can offer competitive pricing, better than the RM55 billion cost, which I believe was highly inflated,” he told the NST.

On financing element, which Nathan acknowledged would be a challenge, he said: “This can be overcome if a group of banks come together to finance the project. If it is financially viable, the companies can form a consortium to share the financing risk.”

It was reported yesterday that Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said other parties had offered to build the rail link for as low as RM10 billion.

“Some even said they can build the ECRL for RM10 billion instead of RM55 billion. Some are Chinese companies, some are local companies. We have to talk with them if there is a possibility of reducing the cost from RM55 billion to RM10 billion. We would be stupid not to accept.

“But we have to study whether, in fact, you can reduce the cost by that much,” Dr Mahathir said.

An industry player quoted by the NST, who is involved in overseas and local infrastructure railway projects, was also of the opinion that Malaysians could undertake the project.

Construction companies, manufacturing companies with railway expertise, and government agencies, like the Malaysian Industry-Government Group for High Technology could provide the needed expertise.

“We have the capacity to get it done. It needs a holistic approach. The idea is to gather all industry players and get them to work together and, believe me, we could get the best deal out of it.”

Another industry source quoted by the daily said costs could be minimized by reducing the number of stations along the route.

The source suggested that improvements could be made to the existing KTM lines for better cargo connectivity to Port Klang.