23 July 2015
Officially unveiled on January 29 this year, AMY – the first of Prasarana Malaysia Berhad’s (Prasarana) fleet of new six-car Light Rail Vehicles (LRVs) for LRT Ampang Line – sets a new milestone today when it rolled through the new extended lines in declaring its readiness to commence operations on October 31 as scheduled.
Carrying key executives of Prasarana Malaysia Berhad (Prasarana), SPAD, Pemandu, DBKL, Majlis Bandaraya Petaling Jaya and media representatives, AMY rolled into the four new stations – Awan Besar, Muhibbah, Alam Sutera and Kinrara BK5 before shuttling back to Sri Petaling station – the last of the point of the current Ampang Line, which had been serving the commuters since 1996 from the days of STAR-LRT.
“As announced on January 29, we will be putting in eight new trains when the first phase of the Ampang LEP commences operations on October 31. Seven of them are already here at our Ampang Depot including three which are in the final stages of completing their testing and commissioning programme.
“The eighth new six-car set is scheduled to arrive before the end of this month. We have made a promise to have eight new train sets when we open for service on October 31. We are committed to that promise and the team have been working round the clock in delivering this promise.
“My congratulations to Dato’ Zohari (Sulaiman) and his team from PRAISE as well as all our partners and contractors. We hope that they will continue their good work and deliver the entire LEP project as scheduled before the middle of next year,” Prasarana Group Managing Director Dato’ Azmi Abdul Aziz told a media briefing at Station LRT Awan Besar here today.
Established under a second phase of Prasarana’s corporate restructuring exercise in April, PRAISE, or Prasarana Rail and Infrastructure Projects Sdn Bhd manages major public transport infrastructure projects assigned to the Group. Apart from the Line Extension Project (LEP), PRAISE has recently delivered Malaysia’s first Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project in Bandar Sunway and has recently commenced initial works on the LRT Line 3 project or LRT3.
While the second phase for the 17.7km-long Ampang LEP project is scheduled for operations in March 2016 involving the remaining nine stations, the Kelana Jaya LEP, which involves an alignment of 17.4km and 12 new stations, is scheduled for operations in June 2016.
“For the second phase of the Ampang LEP, construction of the facilities is currently at 72.29 percent with the system works at almost 60 percent. For the Kelana Jaya line, facilities works are at 87.61 percent and system works are at 78.33 percent.
“As in all other projects especially for major ones like the LEP and BRT, we face challenges. But, credit to the team, we manages to find solutions to these challenges. We have proven at the BRT-Sunway Line in meeting the deadline, we are confident of meeting this time schedule as well, Insya Allah,” Dato’ Azmi added.
Manufactured by CSR Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Co Ltd. (CSR ZELC), the 50 new LRVs are purchased under a contract worth about RM1 billion in a massive effort by Prasarana to further improve public transport services that included extension of the current LRT lines.
While 20 units are procured under the Ampang LRT Line Extension Project (LEP), the remaining 30 are purchased to replace the existing fleet of 30 trains that had been used since 1996 during the days of STAR LRT.
With the additional eight trains in service from October, commuters can expect shorter headways and better frequency, which Azmi hoped would woo in more people to leave their private cars at home and take public transport.
Boasting new attractive features like LCD infotainment display screens, Dynamic Route Map, Side Destination Display, the new six-car LRVs also boosted better safety features like double glazed windows, hopper windows and close circuit televisions as well as better comfort like wheelchair bays for the disabled.
Original Source: www.myrapid.com.my