KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 2 – Keretapi Tanah Melayu Berhad is conducting a feasibility study on having a railway line directly linking Kuala Lumpur and Kuantan, the Dewan Rakyat was told on yesterday. Deputy Transport Minister Datuk Abdul Aziz Kaprawi said the line would shorten travel distance from the federal capital to places in the east coast.
He was replying to a question from Datuk Kamarudin Jaffar (PKR-Tumpat) on the government’s long-term plan to upgrade train services in the east coast. Abdul Aziz also gave a government assurance that the east coast rail services disrupted by floods in December last year would be fully restored by the middle of next year.
“This would be so after the railway bridge at Kemubu in Kelantan had been repaired. Keretapi Tanah Melayu Berhad has resumed inter-city train services on the east coast line in phases, beginning with the Kemubu-Krai-Kemubu and JB Sentral-Gua Musang-JB Sentral sectors on July 12 and 13, respectively, after temporary repairs were carried out in stages from May,” he said.
Replying to another question from Kamarudin, he said the government was not going to privatise the Kuala Lumpur-Tumpat train service, and added that the priority was to upgrade and repair the Gemas-Tumpat alignment. He also said that the second phase of restoration involved the Tumpat-Krai-Tumpat shuttle train service which resumed operation on Aug 31.
Abdul Aziz said the government had allocated RM785.6 million to repair the east coast railway infrastructure, which involved RM419.5 million for the Gemas-Tumpat sector and RM366.1 million for the restoration of stations and repair of flood-damaged infrastructure.
“KTMB was prepared to face any eventuality arising from the floods expected this year. So far, thank God, KTMB has proven that each time after a flood occurs on the east coast, train services are restored within a short time,” he said in a reply to a question from Datuk Noraini Ahmad (BN-Parit Sulong).
