By Zareef Muzammil
GOMBAK, Oct 29 — The Selangor government has proposed that the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) from Batu 16 station to the Gombak Integrated Transport Terminal (ITT) should be cancelled to avoid having an impact on the residents in the area.
Menteri Besar Dato’ Seri Amirudin Shari said the proposal paper for the construction of Gombak’s final station at Batu 16 has been submitted to the relevant parties and is awaiting a response.
“We went through extensive discussions, and one of them included preventing (ECRL) from passing through the Hulu Langat-Gombak Geopark area because it is of high value. Alhamdulillah (Thank God), they removed it from the ECRL alignment.
“They then issued a construction proposal that would divert to Serendah from the Batu 16 area. This means there would be two lanes with a distance of 15 and 20 kilometres (km) heading that direction.
“So, ECRL recently presented it to the state government and we have sent another proposal paper to cancel the route from Batu 16 station to Gombak ITT. The entire area (Gombak) is not be touched by the development,” said Amiruind at a lunch session with the residents in Kampung Sungai Chinchin, here yesterday.
Meanwhile, Kampung Sungai Chinchin Village Community Management Council (MPKK) chairman Ahmad Sofian Abd Rani expressed his hopes that the state government’s commitment to championing the proposal would bring out a win-win situation.
“That’s the proposal (to cancel the route from Batu 16 to Gombak ITT). However, the ECRL project would continue and pass through villages. It is most likely to impact a small number of villagers, but not in the near future.
“He (Amirudin) will update the development on this proposal every two months, so the residents do not need to worry,” he said.
The mega ECRL project involves a distance of 665km across Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang and Selangor, and is scheduled to begin operations in January 2027.