This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on April 18, 2019

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia Rail Link Sdn Bhd (MRL) yesterday clarified that a proposed joint operation agreement between the company and China Communications Construction Co Ltd (CCCC) does not involve ceding any form of ownership of the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) to its Chinese counterpart.

MRL said the joint operation arrangement is purely the sharing of management, operation and maintenance (MOM) costs plus the exchange of technical know-how and expertise between the two companies.

“The government of Malaysia will own 100% of all ECRL assets through MRL, from the beginning to the end of the joint MOM arrangement,” it said, adding that the 50:50 joint-venture (JV) company between MRL and CCCC will not post any threat to national security as it will be under the management of Malaysia.

In a statement, MRL cleared up certain misleading information related to the improved ECRL project that was announced last week by the federal government.

MRL also clarified that the travel time from Kota Baru to Kuala Lumpur via the new southern alignment will be approximately four hours.

It explained that the distance from Kota Baru to Putrajaya Sentral under the new southern alignment is 550km covering 17 stations, compared to the distance from Kota Baru to Gombak under the previous alignment at 525km covering 18 stations.

MRL said the reduction in cost from RM65.5 billion to RM44 billion was not solely due to the four stations being omitted, but includes other cost-saving measures as well.

Even with the scrapping of the purported “RM10 billion tunnel” (Genting Tunnel) through the Titiwangsa range, MRL said the cost would still only be reduced to RM55.5 billion.

In a separate statement, Minister of Economic Affairs Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali said the revised plan for the ECRL project has taken into account the suggestion by the Selangor state government to disallow the alignment to pass through Permatang Kuartza, Gombak which has been listed on the Unesco World Heritage Tentative List.

Hence, the revised plan has removed the construction of an 18km tunnel through the “pure quartz dyke” to protect cultural heritage and environmental factors, he said. Azmin noted that the state government had taken notice of the complaints lodged by the locals as the old alignment plan will pass through forest reserves at the borders of Selangor and Pahang, villages, residential and commercial areas.

This proposal had also contributed to the higher costs because of the need to clear the forest area and to take over commercial and densely-populated housing areas.

“Therefore, I believe that the government’s decision will not only guarantee the development of quality social infrastructure for the people, but also drive economic growth, create jobs and open up various economic opportunities in the value chain,” he added.