Agreement on construction of ECRL’s last railroad stretch to be finalised by July

Sunday 04 Oct 2026

Make The Edge Malaysia your preferred source on Google

KUALA LUMPUR (June 23): Malaysia Rail Link Sdn Bhd (MRL) will firm up an agreement with the contractor of the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) for the connection between its final station in Jalan Kastam, Port Klang to Westports and Northport as early as next month (July 2025), marking the final stretch of the rail network to connect industries in the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia with the country’s largest container port.

“[For the rail line from] Jalan Kastam to [the two ports in] Port Klang, we are looking at finalising everything within July,” said Datuk Seri Darwis Abdul Razak, chief executive officer of the Ministry of Finance-owned MRL.

“But definitely, there will be a supplementary agreement. Everyone knows we have signed Supplementary Agreement No 6 (SA6) back in June 2022, and now, we are going for SA7; hopefully we can sign everything by July,” Darwis told reporters during a media engagement session by MRL and CCCC in Beijing last Tuesday (June 17).

It would be MRL’s seventh supplementary agreement with Hong Kong-listed China Communications Construction Co Ltd (CCCC). MRL is the owner of the 665km ECRL project, while China state-linked CCCC is the project’s main contractor.

The SA6 saw the firming up of the construction cost for the 665km-long ECRL to RM50.27 billion. from Kota Bharu in Kelantan all the way to Jalan Kastam (Section A, Section B and Section C).

The signing of the SA6 follows a final decision on the Section C alignment, which was reverted back to pass through the mountainous region near the border of Selangor and Pahang, rather than having to travel further south through the state of Negeri Sembilan. To illustrate, there are 38 tunnels that have been bored for the rail line, including in Serendah and Genting, as well as elevated sections, on top of 27 wildlife crossings and tunnels to protect the integrity of flora and fauna along the alignment.

Separately, the upcoming SA7 will cover for what is now known as Section D (Jalan Kastam-Westports and Jalan Kastam-Northports), totalling 25.1km, which construction is estimated to cost up to RM2 billion.

The Section D tracks for ECRL will run side by side to the ones owned by Keretapi Tanah Melayu Bhd (KTMB). It is understood that the construction cost also covers the refurbishment of parts of KTMB’s railroad, and a short bypass for KTMB that allows it to go straight between Westports and Northport, without having to go back to Jalan Kastam station.

Minister of Transport Anthony Loke Siew Fook, in his February statement, said the construction “does not require additional allocation from the government”. Tender information was to be provided at end-February by MRL and CCCC, according to Loke’s statement at the time.

Text Size