Renewal of North-South, East-West MRT lines to cost $2.5b: Khaw

SINGAPORE — The ongoing renewal of ageing assets along the MRT system’s North-South and East-West lines will cost $2.5 billion, said Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan on Thursday (2 January).

“We have renewed the old sleepers, third rail and the signalling system. Three more asset groups to go: power supply, track circuits and the 66 first-generation trains,” the 67-year-old Sembawang GRC MP wrote in a Facebook post.

Khaw added that of the three outstanding works, power supply renewal is the “most complex as it is done on a ‘live’ train line and in a high voltage dangerous environment”. With 40 per cent of the works done, the remainder is set for completion by around 2023, he said.

“I will not be able to see through the completion, but am glad that commuters have already begun to experience the improvements,” said Khaw, who is also Coordinating Minister for Infrastructure.

According to local media reports, the track circuit replacement works are 25 per cent complete while the replacements for the first-generation trains will be fully deployed by 2021.

In his New Year Message, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong praised the progress made in train reliability – noting that “(on) average, we have less than one breakdown every 1,000,000km travelled”.

“Meanwhile, we continue to build more rail lines and extensions. Stage 1 of the Thomson-East Coast Line opens next month. We have just settled the alignment of the Cross Island Line, deep under the Central Catchment Nature Reserve,” Lee added.

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