Linking up railway tracks to integrate MRT with KL-Singapore route

Connecting path: Shahril with members of the media on a walk through the one-kilometre tunnel between Cochrane and Tun Razak Exchange stations.

THE public display for MRT Line 2 (Sungai Buloh-Serdang-Putrajaya) will only take place in the second quarter of the year as adjustments need to be made to the alignment.

Mass Rapid Transit Corporation Sdn Bhd (MRT Corp) chief executive officer Datuk Seri Shahril Mokhtar said it was necessary to integrate MRT Line 2 with the High Speed Rail (HSR) link between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore that would stop at Bandar Malaysia, Sungai Besi.

“As part of the Land Public Transport Commission’s (SPAD) public transport masterplan, there will be two MRT stations in Bandar Malaysia but the stations are due to be built along the Line 3 alignment, which is still in the planning stage.

“To integrate with the HSR station and the first phase of development of Bandar Malaysia, which will be completed by 2021, we need to relook at the alignment of MRT Line 2.

“We have already received conditional approval from SPAD in December for the line to pass through Sungai Buloh, Batu Kentonmen, Jinjang, Sentul West, KLCC East, Pandan, Serdang, Seri Kembangan and Putrajaya,” Shahril said after taking the media on a tour of the one kilometre-tunnel between Cochrane and Tun Razak Exchange (TRX) stations on Tuesday.

The TRX station is the deepest among the seven underground stations on MRT Line 1 (Sungai Buloh-Kajang Line) with a depth of 45m.

The station will have five levels, and is 250m long and 41m wide.

It was specially designed to be the interchange station with the future MRT Line 2 which is scheduled to begin construction in November.

Shahril said he was happy with the progress of MRT Line 1 and was confident that Phase 1, between Sungai Buloh and Semantan, would be operational by December 2016.

Phase 2, connecting to Kajang, will be operational by July 2017.

He also revealed that the overall progress for the MRT Sungai Buloh-Kajang Line was at 58.5% as at Dec 31.

Progress for underground work, including construction of seven underground stations and tunnels, for the 9.5km underground section of the MRT Sungai Buloh-Kajang Line was at 73.13%.

“The progress for the elevated section stands at 49.2%,” said Shahril.