KUALA LUMPUR (March 12): The East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) project has completed excavation works of 30 tunnels along its rail alignment to date after it achieved three tunnel breakthroughs in a single day within the Bentong district.

In a statement on Tuesday, ECRL project owner Malaysia Rail Link Sdn Bhd (MRL) said three ECRL tunnels namely Bentong, Kampung Lentang and Kampung Lentang 2 were excavated ahead of schedule via the “drill and blast” tunnelling method.

MRL chief executive officer Datuk Seri Darwis Abdul Razak said the ECRL project has hit a new milestone with 30 tunnel breakthroughs.

“We are optimistic that the construction of the ECRL alignment from Kota Bharu to ITT Gombak will be completed by December 2026, considering tunnel excavation works which are both challenging and contingent on geological conditions have progressed smoothly and as per scheduled,”he said.

Darwis said the project had achieved an overall progress of 62.4% as of February 2024, underpinned by rapid infrastructure works that included tunnel excavation, beam launching, track laying and station construction.