Malaysia Rapid Transit Corporation Sdn Bhd (MRT Corp) hosted a group of 11 journalists from Indonesia on 22 January 2014.

The visit was arranged by PT Mass Rapid Transit Jakarta (MRT Jakarta) which was keen to show them how Malaysia was building the MRT Sungai Buloh-Kajang Line. MRT Jakarta is currently building the first MRT line in Jakarta.

Participants included representatives from renowned Indonesian media organisations such as The Jakarta Post, Kompas.com, Tempo, Detik.com and Trans TV. The delegation was led by MRT Jakarta’s President Director, Mr Dono Boestami.

After a briefing session by MRT Corp Director of Strategic Communications and Public Relations Encik Amir Mahmood Razak at the Taman Tun Dr Ismail MRT Information Centre which was also attended by MRT Corp Acting Chief Executive Officer Encik Haris Fadzilah Hassan, the delegation went to the KL Sentral MRT Station site where they descended into the station box to the concourse level of the future station.

At the station site, the delegates managed to catch a glimpse of the two tunnel boring machines which had successfully excavated the twin tunnels from the Semantan Portal. The TBMs were now undergoing maintenance before being relaunched to excavate tunnels to Pasar Seni MRT Station.

After KL Sentral, the delegation went to the Pasar Rakyat Station site, the deepest underground station of the MRT Sungai Buloh-Kajang Line. From the viewing gallery, the delegates managed to see the world’s first Variable Density TBM which had just broken through at the station after excavating the tunnel from Cochrane Station.

The visit concluded with lunch at the Taman Tun Dr Ismail MRT Information Centre.

In the afternoon, Encik Amir held a closed door session with Mr Boestami and his team where MRT Corp shared their experience on stakeholder engagement and public relations.