KUALA LUMPUR: Prasarana Malaysia Bhd, which is in the process of replacing its current fleet of Rapid KL LRT Ampang Line trains, will receive its first new six-car Light Rail Vehicles (LRV) on Dec 27.
In a statement on Wednesday, the group said the train, which is the first of 50 sets acquired from CSR Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Co (CSR) including 20 under the LRT Line Extension Project (LEP), is being shipped from Shanghai on Dec 5 and currently heading for Port Klang.
“From Port Klang, it will be transported to the Ampang Line Depot before it undergoes our internal inspection; after which we will commence testing and commissioning procedures. It may sound straight forward, but it is a tedious process,” says Prasarana group director for project development, Datuk Zohari Sulaiman.
According to Zohari, Customs’ clearance at Port Klang would take a few days before the LRV would be being transported to Ampang, which he said, would be another massive exercise given the size of the six-car trains.
“Once cleared by Customs, mobilization to Ampang Depot could only be done after 11pm. The journey from West Port to Ampang Depot will take between five to six hours; arriving around dawn. Then, come the unloading process, which should take another day and subjected to weather conditions," he said.
He added that internal inspection will take another five working days, whereby testing and commissioning procedures would start a week after the LRV arrival at Ampang Depot.
“The works will start with the routine static and dynamic test; before we carry out the static and dynamic Type test for the LRV. Then, we will commence with the integration test with the Systems,” Zohari said, adding that the second LRV is targeted for delivered by mid-January and the third train by the middle of March.
“Under our arrangement with the manufacturer, the first 35 trains would be delivered as CBU (complete-built units) from China. The last 15 will be locally assembled at the CSR Zhuzhou plant Batu Gajah as to meet the local content requirement,” he added.
Under the LEP, the existing Ampang and Kelana Jaya LRT lines are extended to Putra Heights integrated station. For the Ampang, the extended line would run for 18.1km with 11 new stations and the first phase of four stations – Awan Besar, Muhibbah, Alam Sutera and Kinrara BK5 to be opened at the end of October next year.
Zohari said for the first LRV, testing and commissioning should take between four to five months.
“Later, it will come to a duration of three month per LRV,” he said, adding that a total of six new trains would be available when the first phase of LEP opens in October.
The new train sets, which meet the latest international safety standards, are equipped with universal access features including six compartments for wheelchairs. It also allows commuters to walk from one end of the train to another as the new Ampang LRV now comes with a walkthrough gangway.
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