PUTRAJAYA had no choice but to go ahead with the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) project or risk losing billions of ringgit, said Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

The prime minister said the government would have preferred to drop the project, but the contractors had gone ahead with the preliminary work.

“We had a choice to stop the project, pay billions of ringgit to the contractor and not use what has been built.

“However, it was better to continue with the project based on the reduced costs,” he said after launching the 2019-2030 National Transport Policy at Kuala Lumpur Sentral today.

The Pakatan Harapan government had put the project on hold in July last year to review its bloated cost.

It was given a reboot in April this year following a successful renegotiation with the project’s main contractor China Communications Construction Co Ltd and the government of China.

The renegotiation resulted in almost one-third of the cost slashed from the final bill, cutting expenditure by RM22 billion to RM44 billion.

Malaysia Rail Link Sdn Bhd CEO Darwis Abdul Razak said about 214 previously appointed local subcontractors will be recalled.

“Local contractors who had been appointed earlier on are still involved. We will also recall contractors who were previously involved in this project,” he said

Once completed, the 640km rail network will link Kota Baru to Putrajaya.

The journey between the two cities is expected to take four hours. – October 17, 2019.