KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 15 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak officiated today the groundbreaking ceremony for the second Mass Rail Transit (MRT) line that will connect the townships of Sungai Buloh, Serdang and Putrajaya.
Called the SSP line, the project will have 37 stations along its 52.2km stretch and will cost Mass Rapid Transit Corp Sdn Bhd (MRT Corp) RM32 billion, a price tag higher than their Sungai Buloh-Kajang line due to the number of underground stations being built.
“We believe this will push KL, Putrajaya and the Klang Valley forward and make it a world class city, improving its standard in terms of livability in the city,” he said during the groundbreaking ceremony at the Putrajaya Sentral station construction site.
“With this, therefore, we will only need 30 minutes to get to Kuala Lumpur from Putrajaya and we need only 90 minutes to get to Singapore. This is what the future if Malaysia's modernisation looks like,” he added, referencing the MRT's interchangeability with the Malaysia-Singapore high speed rail.
Of the 37 stations being built, 11 of them in the city centre will be underground namely from the Titiwangsa station to the Bandar Malaysia South station.
Of the total 52.2km, 38.7km will be elevated rails while the remaining 13.5km will be underground.
Phase 1 of construction, from Sungai Buloh to Kampung Batu is expected to be completed by 2021 while the second phase, from Kampung Batu to Putrajaya Sentral, is set to be completed by 2022.
The SSP line will start at the Sungai Buloh depot, which will see its current size doubled to accommodate the increased foot traffic, and head east through Damansara Damai and Kepong before it heads south, passing through Kampung Baru, Kuchai Lama, Serdang and Cyberjaya before ending at the Putrajaya Sentral station.
End-to-end travel times, from Putrajaya Sentral to Sungai Buloh and vice versa will take a total of 84 minutes. However travel from any station into Kuala Lumpur will not exceed 45 minutes to ensure that the MRT remains a viable option compared to driving.
The SSP line will also intersect with all other rail lines a total of 12 times, with three different stations connecting to the Ampang-Sri Petaling lines and the KTM rail respectively.
MRT Corp expects a daily ridership of 529,000 passengers on its SSP line and predicts a catchment population of two million people.
