LRT3 to begin taking passengers by 3Q next year, says Loke
KLANG: The Light Rail Transit 3 (LRT3) is expected to take passengers in the third quarter of next year, said Transport Minister Anthony Loke.
He said construction on the LRT3 project stood at 95.6 per cent.
"We anticipate that the physical work will be finished by October.
"Then, system integration and testing will take place until early next year.
"We'll then enter the testing and commissioning phase, which will last three to four months. The project is expected to be fully completed by the third quarter of next year.
"The project is experiencing delays from the original schedule due to setbacks during the Covid-19 period.
"However, Prasarana Malaysia Bhd and the contractors have been working diligently to make up for lost time," he said after inspecting the status of the LRT3 at the Pasar Jawa station here today.
The RM16 billion LRT3 project, which runs from Klang to Bandar Utama in Petaling Jaya, is expected to benefit over two million residents.
Loke also said the cabinet meeting on July 5 had agreed to reinstate the five stations which had been cancelled. These are Tropicana, Temasya, Raja Muda, Bukit Raja, and Bandar Botanik.
"The scope, which was previously cancelled, will be reinstated along with additional work such as the purchase of seven sets of three-car trains, expansion of the train depot at Johan Setia, the acquisition of 150 feeder electric buses and the construction of three bus depots," he said.
In 2018, Prasarana had shelved the construction of the five stations with very low projected passenger ridership until a time demand deemed it necessary.
Loke said that reinstating the five stations was expected to cost RM3.8 billion.
"This covers the restoration of the project scope, infrastructure and system costs, including contractors, rolling stock purchases, electronic buses and bus depot construction.
"The addition of these five stations will require another two years. However, this will not affect the opening of the LRT3 or its daily operations, which will initially include 20 stations.
"Two years after that, an additional five stations will begin operations."