JOHOR BARU: A RM60mil link bridge for pedestrians will be built to connect the Bukit Chagar RTS station directly with KTM Bhd’s Johor Baru station that is the terminus for its ETS and Komuter services.
Following a walkabout at the Johor Baru-Singapore RTS site yesterday, Transport Minister Anthony Loke said the walkway project has received approval from the Economy Ministry, with work expected to begin soon.
Other than a construction time of about 12 months, no further details about the walkway was made available.
Elsewhere, Border Control and Protection Agency (AKPS) director-general Comm Datuk Seri Mohd Shuhaily Mohd Zain revealed that a manual clearance system is in place to back up the digital clearance system in case of disruptions when the RTS Link begins operations.
He said about 640 officers will be stationed at the Bukit Chagar integrated immigration, customs and quarantine (ICQ) complex to handle monitoring and enforcement for the RTS Link.
“Our planning is the same. When the (online) system breaks down, we will go back to the manual system.
“That is why we need the manpower to mitigate this kind of circumstances,” he said after accompanying Loke for the inspection.
Comm Mohd Shuhaily was asked on contingency measures following several occasions where travellers between Johor Baru and Singapore experienced chaos due to e-gate system failures next door at the Bangunan Sultan Iskandar complex, with the latest incident happening in April.
The Bukit Chagar ICQ is equipped with 100 e-gates and 10 hybrid manual counters.
Comm Mohd Shuhaily also said about 400 AKPS trainees are currently undergoing training at the Police Training Centre in Segamat and are expected to report for duty at Bukit Chagar in October.
“They will then undergo a three-month familiarisation and simulation under AKPS to familiarise themselves with the building, passenger flow and systems,” he said, adding that this part was vital as the RTS Link is designed to ferry up to 10,000 travellers per hour per direction.
Meanwhile, Loke said the RTS ticket price and exact date of operation will be jointly announced by the transport ministers of Malaysia and Singapore as it is a bilateral project.
He said the construction of the link has entered a critical stage before the service could be opened to the public.
“From the physical aspect, the Bukit Chagar ICQ complex and RTS Link station are already completed.
“We are now in the testing phase, which will be what the next few months are for.
“This includes system integration tests, final testing and trial runs, which are necessary before operations begin,” he said.
Loke, who also rode the RTS train from Bukit Chagar to Woodlands North station in Singapore as part of a test run, said he is satisfied with the overall progress of the project on the Malaysian side.
He added that his ministry is looking to add at least 200 new buses to cover the surrounding residential areas to connect travellers to and from Bukit Chagar.
The RTS Link is a railway shuttle link about 4km in length with two stations, one in Bukit Chagar here, and one in Woodlands North, Singapore, with an anticipated daily ridership of about 40,000 passengers once it opens next year.
