The MRT Putrajaya Line (previously known as the MRT Sungai Buloh-Serdang-Putrajaya Line) saw its final tunnel boring machine (TBM) breakthrough at the Ampang Park MRT Station site on 17 July 2020, marking a major milestone for the project.

The TBM, codenamed TBM 774, was launched in September 2019 from Conlay MRT Station site and excavated a section of the MRT tunnel beneath Jalan Stonor, Persiaran KLCC, Jalan Binjai and Jalan Ampang as well as the LRT Kelana Jaya Line tunnels to the Ampang Park MRT Station site, a distance of 917 metres.

The breakthrough – where a TBM completes its excavation work and bores through the wall and breaks into a station box or shaft – was witnessed by Datuk Mohd Zarif Hashim, the newly appointed Chief Executive Officer of Malaysia Rapid Transit Corporation Sdn Bhd (MRT Corp).

Also present at the breakthrough were MRT Corp’s Project Director MRT Putrajaya Line Dato’ Amiruddin Ma’aris, MMC Gamuda KVMRT (PDP SSP) Sdn Bhd Directors Dato’ Ir Paul Ha and Datuk Seri Che Khalib Mohd Noh as well as MMC Gamuda MRT Putrajaya Line Project Director Dato’ Wong Wai Ching. MMC Gamuda is the turnkey contractor for the construction of the MRT Putrajaya Line.

With the breakthrough at Ampang Park MRT Station site, tunnel excavation for the MRT Putrajaya Line has reached 98% completion. Less than 400m of tunneling distance is left and is expected to be completed next month.

This remaining section is being excavated by the last of the 12 TBMs that were used for the project. The completion of this remaining section however will not be as dramatic as today’s breakthrough because the TBM will be dismantled inside the tunnel when it concludes its job by docking at the retaining wall of the current Tun Razak Exchange Station.

The underground section of the MRT Putrajaya Line is 13.5km in length. To construct the twin tunnels for this section, 12 TBMs were used. Of the 12 TBMs, eight were previously used for the MRT Kajang Line (previously known as MRT Sungai Buloh-Kajang Line) and underwent refurbishment in a plant in Pusing, Perak – the first time ever that such work was carried out in Malaysia – before being re-deployed for the MRT Putrajaya Line.

The TBMs also underwent improvements and upgrading, including being able to be controlled autonomously with the use of artificial intelligence algorithms to optimize performance.

The second line to be constructed under the Klang Valley MRT Project, the MRT Putrajaya Line will have 36 stations, of which nine are underground stations. The entire alignment is 56.2km running from Kwasa Damansara to Putrajaya Sentral.

The overall progress of the MRT Putrajaya Line is more than 75%.