KUALA LUMPUR, March 8 — The East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) project owner has implemented a Wildlife Management Plan (WMP) to minimise the impact of the railway on wildlife and habitats in Malaysian forests.
The WMP was formulated through collaboration between the project’s main contractor China Communications Construction (ECRL) Sdn Bhd (CCC-ECRL) and the Department of Wildlife and National Parks Peninsular Malaysia (Perhilitan).
CCC-ECRL has allocated a grant of more than RM9 million to Perhilitan to carry out wildlife surveys, surveillance and conflict mitigation, according to Malaysia Rail Link Sdn Bhd (MRL) head of environment Norhasrul Abu Hassan.
CCC-ECRL and Perhilitan signed a supplementary agreement in September 2022 to further enhance the implementation of wildlife conservation and mitigation works along the rail alignment under the WMP.
He said about 27 wildlife crossings had been proposed, 11 of which will be constructed at the Kemasul forest in Pahang to facilitate primarily elephants as well as tapir and sun bear to traverse the area safely.
“The wildlife box culverts (wildlife crossings) at Kemasul forest have a height of 5.3 metres and a width of 6.0 meter. We designed larger wildlife box culverts here as we anticipate herds of elephants roaming the area,” he told reporters during a media visit to the wildlife crossing sites in Kemasul on March 6.
He pointed out that the implementation of the WMP will also ensure that all development activities before, during and after the construction phase of the ECRL is done according to the Wildlife Conservation Act 2010 and the Forestry Act 1984.
“The wildlife crossings in Kemasul forest vary in lengths of between 15 metres and 75 metres, after taking into consideration the topography and the size of animals.
“All the crossings in Kemasul are expected to be completed by the end of this year,” he said.
Norhasrul also said the ECRL project had taken adequate environmental safeguards into consideration with design modifications along its rail alignment.
“The original provision was for us to use about 2,000 hectares of forest land to construct the alignment.
“However, we managed to reduce the forest land usage by 90 per cent to 276 hectares through construction of more than 50 tunnels totalling about 61 kilometres and alignment modifications,” he added.
MRL is the project and asset owner of the ECRL, which will traverse the east coast states of Kelantan, Terengganu and Pahang before linking with the Klang Valley.
The ECRL project is expected to be completed in December 2026 and ready for operation in January 2027.
— Bernama
