The long-awaited SMART Tunnel Project is finally completed. It was opened to traffic on 14th May 2007 beginning at 3pm.

As a quick introduction, SMART is an acronym for Stormwater Management and Road Tunnel, a project under the Federal Government initiated to alleviate the flooding problem in the city centre of Kuala Lumpur. The project is implemented through a joint venture pact between MMC Berhad and Gamuda Berhad with the Department of Irrigation And Drainage Malaysia and the Malaysian Highway Authority as the executing government agencies.

I took a tour on the 3km two-deck highway to gain an insight of this RM1.9billion tunnel. From Sg. Besi, it took me approx. 4 minutes at 100km/h to reach the other end of the tunnel. There’s two exit i.e to Jln Sultan Ismail and Jln Tun Razak.

The tunnel is brightly lit, equipped with huge ventilators to suck out hot air from the tunnel and there’s also a lot of escape routes in case of emergency.

I observed that some drivers are driving too fast inside the tunnel which is not only posing a danger to themselves but also to the other road users. Imagine if there’s a road mishap inside the tunnel!!!

To encourage road users to use the tunnel, there is no toll being charged for a month beginning May 14th. Have you tried it yet?