Gamuda Brings Technical Expertise to Penang’s Mutiara Line

25 Mar 2025 | Gamuda Berhad

In 2024, Penang’s George Town was crowned the city with the worst traffic congestion in Malaysia with an average driving time of 27 minutes per 10 kilometres, according to the TomTom Traffic Index. Locals can tell you they can be stuck up to 50 minutes on city roads, driving at a 10 to 25km per hour crawl to travel the same distance during severe congestion.

Now, the state is finally embarking on a life-changing journey to address its infamous traffic problem, improve connectivity and ultimately Penang residents’ quality of life by building the much-awaited Light Rail Transit (LRT) system, called the Penang Mutiara Line (PML).

SRS Consortium (SRSC), a 60:20:20 joint venture between Gamuda, Loh Phoy Yen Holdings and Ideal Property Development was appointed on January 13, 2025, by project owner MRT Mutiara (a subsidiary of MRT Corporation) to lead the construction as the Civil Main Contractor 1 (CMC1), tasked with building PML’s civil structures from Komtar to Silicon Island.

SRSC’s Scope of Work

23.7km elevated viaduct from Komtar to Silicon Island.
19 stations (above ground) and one provisional station in Silicon Island.
A depot at Silicon Island for light and heavy maintenance.
Ancillary structures, at-grade park and ride (AGPR), utilities and services relocations, utility buildings, external surface works, and other associated works.

Our Technical Prowess

“SRSC’s appointment reflects the confidence in our multidisciplinary technical abilities, expertise in logistics planning, track record in delivering complex infrastructure projects in Malaysia and beyond, including award-winning rail and metro systems in Australia, Taiwan and Singapore,” said Adil Putra bin Ahmad, SRS LRT Project Director.

“The team is also no stranger to building rail systems above water and Gamuda will bring this expertise to the PML project, where we will build rail viaducts over water and above ground,” Adil continued.

The span between Permatang Damar Laut Station and Silicon Island’s A1 Station which goes over water, will be the at 332m.

Since the appointment, the team has been involved in value management exercises, while station and alignment designs are ongoing, and test pile works looming.

Adil Putra bin Ahmad, SRS LRT Project Director.

“We have a proven track record of building elevated viaducts of all kinds – rail, bridges and roads. Our extensive experience in local and international projects ensures that we are well-positioned to deliver the Penang LRT efficiently, on time and within budget.” – Adil

Its experience in building the world-class Kajang, Serdang and Sungai Buloh depots for the Klang Valley Mass Rapid Transit projects will be significant in building the PML’s depot, which is Gamuda’s first depot built on reclaimed land. For this depot, our capable geotechnical and structural team will be applying the following measures:

Sand-filling with surcharge and prefabricated vertical drains (PVD) treatment to accelerate soil consolidation.

Depot buildings will be piled and the track area enhanced with stone columns and surcharge to achieve stricter settlement criteria.

Combination of transition piles, flexible joints and detached aprons at approaches to buildings to mitigate differential settlement.

The 65.4-acre depot will stable 49 trains and house Maintenance Facilities to support the Level 1 to Level 5 train maintenance works for Electric Trains (ETs) and Maintenance Vehicles (MVs).

Meanwhile, the architectural team has designed LRT stations sporting oyster looks, a concept by the project owner to pay homage to Penang’s identity as the ‘Pearl of the Orient’ – the nickname that also inspired the Penang LRT’s official name.

Alignment map of Penang Mutiara Line. Source: MRT Corp

Bringing Digitalisation in Engineering to Penang

Gamuda, which has made significant advancements in digital engineering since completing the MRT Putrajaya Line in 2023 and the MRT Kajang Line in 2017, is taking its digitalisation expertise to Penang via SRSC to set new benchmarks in the PML project.

“The project will further amplify how digital innovation drives organisational success and enhances project outcomes by empowering the team to make data-driven decisions and prioritise safety, efficiency and sustainability.” – Adil

Autodesk Construction Cloud
for digital forms

Gamuda Digital Operating System
for safety and traffic enforcement

Google BigQuery
for data warehousing

Power BI Dashboards
for actionable insights

Building Information Modelling (BIM) enables the design of a unified virtual model that serves as a single source of truth, integrating 4D and 5D dimensions to enhance collaboration, reduce clashes and errors, and improve risk mitigation, ultimately leading to cost savings.

What is further enhanced from our past projects is that the project team will be able to use more drones to remotely monitor progress and use of resources, therefore improving site coordination works and digitalising costings in shorter periods to make better informed decisions. In addition, it greatly improves efficiency with minimum paperwork.

Drones proved invaluable in our surveying work during our MRT project delivery, allowing our operations team to track and report progress with ease. Now, we will expand their use by setting up a dedicated drone operation team to manage traffic and ensure compliance in complex scenarios, such as night shifts, works at height, and launch operations throughout construction. Traffic diversion will be a particularly crucial factor in Penang.

At the MRT Putrajaya Line construction site, drones were deployed for surveying work.

Stakeholder Priorities

At its peak, 5,000 workers are expected to be involved in the PML project and as we build through congested urban areas. Stakeholder management and safety are a top priority in Penang. As a testament to our capabilities in these areas, Gamuda has won several local and international safety and community engagement awards for rail, tunnelling and bridge projects.

We will take the lead in engaging with stakeholders through community and residential awareness, business partnerships, media relations, regional localisation, educational and career outreach, safety programmes, environmental conservation, urban and infrastructure development, and socio-economic initiatives.

Commitment to Penang

Gamuda is committed to delivering the PML within budget and on time for Penang residents, who have waited a decade to finally see the LRT project materialise this year.

Upon completion in 2031, PML is expected to alleviate the traffic congestion on the island and enhance connectivity, improving quality of life for the people.

The PML represents a transformation for Penang’s urban landscape, transportation masterplan and meeting the people’s growing mobility needs and economic growth.