Raja Nur Ashikin Raja Zainal, director of ERE Consulting Group Sdn Bhd – tasked with undertaking the detailed environmental impact assessment of the project – said: “1,500 respondents were interviewed on the proposed MRT Line 2.
“We also conducted case interviews as well as held many public dialogues and focus group discussions to gain insights on the project.” She added that the final alignment for the 52.2km MRT Line 2 is still being worked out and may be subject to change based on public feedback. The MRT Line 1 alignment was changed before work on the project began after protests from residents over the elevated section that was initially proposed through Bangsar.
The proposed alignment – as of now – will see Line 2 having 25 elevated stations and 11 underground for a total of 36 stations, starting from from Sg Buloh to Serdang and on to Putrajaya.
For the upcoming MRT Line 2, Raja Nur Ashikin said: “The public can head to one of our 27 public display locations between now until May 19. The full report can be downloaded from MRT Corp’s website as well.”
MRT Corp director of strategic communication and public relation, Mahmood Abdul Razak, said the typical frequency for the train – once operational – would be 3.5 minutes apart and the estimated journey time from Sg.Buloh to Putrajaya would be 84 minutes.
He said the proposed MRT Line 2 would also be integrated with the KTM Komuter, Ampang and Kelana Jaya LRT lines, MRT Line 1, Monorail, ERL as well as the proposed high speed rail link to Singapore at several interchanges.
“Once the public have given their feedback and the submission of the assessment to the department of environment completed, the expected commencement of construction should begin early next year.”
While the overall work progress on MRT Line 1 is progressing well, Mahmood said there are pockets which are underperforming with valid reasons. “They were underperforming because there was challenges on the site and the numbers were taken last year.
“An example, is a construction in Pusat Bandar Damansara where the piling took them more than the required number of months because of hard quartz rock.
“When we did our study, We thought it would be quite simple but that wasn’t the case. So that slowed things down. “As at March 2015, where the target is for 85% completion, we are at 79%. We are closing this gap now.”
News Source: The Rakyat Post, 29 April 2015