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KTM Bhd, the national railway
operating company, has assured that
there would be no disruption or
rescheduling of any of the freight
train services during the
construction of double tracking,
from Seremban to Johor Bahru to the
south and the Ipoh to Padang Besar
in the north.
This would be unlike in the 180km
Rawang-Ipoh sector, these two major
sector will not affected by the mega
infrastructure project over the next
five years.
Speaking after witnessing the
handing over of the final batch of
195 bogie container flats for KTM
Bhd in Kuala Lumpur the Minister of
Transport, Datuk Seri Dr Ling Liong
Sik said in the case of Rawang-Ipoh
sector, the contractor of the tracks
had been given 10-hour line block
for five days per week to facilitate
the double track project works.
This has made KTM Bhd to reschedule
some of its local and international
freight trains.
"However, we will not use the same
approach in the third phase of the
construction of double tracks along
the national grid," the Minister
said.
This follows move by KTM to develop
a completely separate two new lines
to ensure that the freight services
are maintained without disruptions.
The Minister of Transport, Datuk
Seri Dr Ling Liong Sik affirmed the
present inter state block train
service and the international land
bridge service schedule would be not
affected.
KTM Bhd has also sorted out the
overhead clearance problem relating
to the low tunnel at the Bukit
Berapit near Taiping, Perak.
This is expected to be facilitated
by the new 195 BCF wagons which KTM
took delivery of recently at a cost
RM 38 million from MMC Metal
industries Sdn Bhd.
The BCFs are specially designed to
be lower than KTMB's existing wagons
to enable them to pass through the
Bukit Berapit Tunnel when
transporting high cube
containers,(9.5 ft) from Port Klang
to Bangkok which form the backbone
of the land bridge system.
The wagons will facilitate shorter
turnaround time due to its
reliability, low maintenance and
capability of operating of operating
at a higher speed of 100kph.
The completion of Ipoh-Rawang sector
will make rail mode of
transportation as the preferred mode
of freight transportation in
Malaysia.
The physical infrastructure work on
the Rawang-Ipoh sector is expected
to be completed by early December
this year.
This will be followed by
installation of signaling system and
to be completed by end of next year.
The Ipoh-Rawang new line has
enhanced KTM Bhd's capacity as the
operators of the landbridge services
can now move up to 80 TEUs per train
as compared with 40 TEUs per train.
The Minister called on for
aggressive marketing approach to be
initiated to capture the fast
growing volume of cross-boarder
trade.
"Today our railway moves merely two
per cent of the box traffic moving
in and out from the country. The
situation will slowly changed as the
government aggressively focusing on
the development of rail network
throughout the country," he said.
"We always believe that shippers and
shipping lines will transport larger
portion of their consignments via
rail as it provides cheaper mode of
overland transportation as compared
with haulage and other conventional
mode of transportation," said the
Minister.
KTMB is counting on the timely
completion of double tracking
project and the delivery of new
rolling stocks in order to take
advantage of new business
opportunities that are likely to
emerge from the entry of AFTA.
Currently the government is
evaluating the bids for the two
major sectors from various parties.
With the completion of the major
tracks and acquisition of the new
rolling stocks, existing customers
can expect better services from KTM
Berhad in terms of volume capacity
per trip.
The increased volume capacity per
trip will also be a major factor to
attract new customers.
Survey carried out by KTMB indicates
that the overall completion of the
electrified double tracks coupled
with the acquisition of new rolling
stocks will enable KTM Bhd to
increase the volume of cargo
transported from five million tonnes
per year at present to 10 million
tonnes per year in 2008.
On the international front, Malaysia
is committed on the development of
Singapore-Kunming project. In fact
we welcome any Malaysian companies
to take part in the development of
missing 48km Poipet-Sisophon stretch
in Cambodia which will subsequently
link to Phnom Penh.
The 240-km stretch from Cambodia to
Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam will be
jointly developed by a consortium of
the Asean members. The consortium
would also like to invite the
participation of China, South Korea,
Japan and India.
The Trans Asia rail link which will
connect rail services from Singapore
to Kunming, China, is expected to
offer greater advantage for rail
transportation over sea-going
vessels in term of volume and
distance. |
