Govt gives OK for MRT line to link to Serdang and Putrajaya

Government had given the final approval for the MRT Sungai Buloh-Serdang-Putrajaya Line (SSP Line) railway scheme

KUALA LUMPUR: The Mass Rapid Transit will now link from Sungai Buloh to Serdang and onwards to federal government administrative centre of Putrajaya.

Mass Rapid Transit Corporation Sdn Bhd (MRT Corp) said on Thursday the government had given the final approval for the MRT Sungai Buloh-Serdang-Putrajaya Line (SSP Line) railway scheme.

“With the final approval obtained, MRT Corp will now proceed with the construction of the SSP Line which is the second line of the Klang Valley MRT Project,” it said.

MRT Corp received a letter from the Land Public Transport Commission (Suruhanjaya Pengangkutan Awam Darat or SPAD) about the final approval of the railway scheme.

The scheme includes the final alignment and station locations of the SSP Line.

“The SSP Line will add significantly to the urban rail coverage in the Klang Valley and will serve a corridor with a population of two million people by providing them with a modern, efficient, reliable and safe public transport service.

“The final approval comes after the completion of the three-month public inspection of the proposed SSP line between May 15, 2015 and Aug 17, 2015 when booths were set up at 26 locations along the proposed alignment,” it said.

The final alignment saw some minor tweaking at two locations at Kuchai Lama and Sungai Besi to minimise the impact from land acquisition and to enable optimisation of usage of the remaining land after acquisition.

The government also decided that an additional elevated station should be constructed near Technology Park Malaysia (TPM) between stations S25 at Sungai Besi and S26 at Serdang Raya North. Besides serving TPM, this new station’s catchment area will also include many future development projects in the Sungai Besi area.

The increase in the area of coverage with this additional station will result in an increase in ridership levels.

With this additional station, the SSP Line will now have 37 stations. Of these, 25 stations will be elevated stations, 11 stations will be underground, and one (1) will be “half-sunken” where it will be built on the ground below the current level.

With the SSP Line, residents living along the alignment will get direct and efficient access to the Golden Triangle of Kuala Lumpur. The SSP Line will also integrate with the future Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High Speed Rail.

The overall length of the final alignment remains unchanged at 52.2km, of which 38.7km will elevated and 13.5km will be underground. The underground section of the alignment will be between Jalan Ipoh and Kuchai Lama.

Phase One of the SSP Line between Sungai Buloh and Kampung Batu is expected to be operational by July 2021, while the remaining section between Kampung Batu and Putrahaya Sentral will be operational under Phase 2 by July 2022.

MRT Corp expects the SSP Line to have a ridership of more than 500,000 passengers daily when it is fully operational in July 2022.

For the MRT Sungai Buloh-Kajang Line (SBK Line), Phase One will begin operations by the end of 2016, while the remainder of the line will begin operations under Phase Two by July 31, 2017.