KUALA LUMPUR: AFTER close to five years, and from the planning to construction stages, the wait is finally over. The first phase of the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Sungai Buloh-Kajang (SBK) Line will open to the public on Friday.
Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) chief executive officer Mohd Azharuddin Mat Sah said the MRT line was crucial for the government’s aim to achieve a 40 per cent modal share by 2030.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak is expected to launch the first phase of the MRT on Thursday before its opening to the public the next day.
“This line, as part of a comprehensive network system, is part of the government’s aim to make Kuala Lumpur one of the top livable cities by 2020 — at par with, if not better, than London, Singapore and Hong Kong.
“This is part of a comprehensive programme, coupled with the light rail transit extension that was launched in June.
“The government, together with SPAD as the supervisory agency, aims to create a complete network and connect all the important corridors in the city,” he told Business Times in an interview, here, recently.
The first phase of the MRT SBK Line will cover 12 stations from Sungai Buloh to Semantan over 24km.
The MRT, which comes with four car sets for each journey, will have a train frequency of three minutes during peak periods.
When the entire MRT SBK Line is completed in July next year, it will have a capacity of 400,000 passengers per day.
Mohd Azharuddin said the developer of the line, MRT Corp Sdn Bhd, was allocating 112 out of 300 feeder buses to provide the ease of connectivity for people travelling to the city centre.
He said the frequency for these feeder buses would be once every 10 to 15 minutes during peak hours, and once every 20 minutes during off-peak hours.
As the issue of public transportation affordability is always a concern of the government and the rakyat, Mohd Azharuddin said the feeder bus fare has been set at a flat rate of RM1 per ride.
Mohd Azharuddin said there would be discounts for students, people with disabilities, senior citizens and holders of weekly and monthly passes, ranging between 20 and 30 per cent.
He said besides the feeder buses, commuters could take the free GoKL buses to travel within the central business district of Kuala Lumpur.
Mohd Azharuddin said as the country was moving away from a car-based community, public transportation network is an important component of city life, in line with the government’s vision to reduce traffic congestion and carbon emissions, while increasing the public transport’s modal share.
“Within a span of less than six years, we are seeing the completion of the LRT extension and now the MRT which will complete part of the comprehensive public transportation network that we, as the supervisory agency, together with the government envision to have in place,” he said.