PUTRAJAYA: Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has urged the public to be patient and wait for the government to decide on the status of the contract with China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) to build the East Coast Railway Link (ECRL) mega project.
“Has (Finance Minister) Lim Guan Eng made any statement on ECRL? No? We wait for him to issue a statement,” he said.
“We will wait and have to be patient... but sometimes people make mistakes, we have to understand that this is a new government.
“The number of mistakes made is not very many, but people notice it very much because it is a new government.”
Asked about the supposed official letter from the government on the cancellation of the project that was being circulated, he said; ”Everyone can now take a letter, cut and use (government letterhead), that is not official.”
It was reported yesterday that two senior ministers seemed to be at odds with each other over the RM81 billion project.
Economic Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Azmin Ali said the cabinet had decided on Thursday to cancel the project, but Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said later that he was “shocked” by the announcement.
An online portal reported last week that the government had cancelled the ECRL contract with CCCC.
Quoting sources, the report said Putrajaya was looking for a new contractor to develop the 688km rail project connecting the Klang Valley to the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia at half of the original estimated cost of RM81billion.
Report by: Azura Abas, Hashini Kavishtri Kannan, Mohd Husni Mohd Noor and Zanariah Abd Mutalib