In Putrajaya, you may catch the sight of this one weird bridge. It is disconnected on both side from the land it was supposed to be connected to. What is the bridge doing there? Why is it there? You will find out in this article.
Putrajaya - the City of Bridges
If you ever went to Putrajaya, you will notice that there are a lot of bridges there. Someone actually counted, and there are 9 bridges in Putrajaya. The Seri Wawasan Bridge and Seri Saujana Bridge are especially beautiful in the night, with colorful lightings illuminating the bridges.
Then, there is this one bridge, sitting between these two majestic bridges. You can barely notice it during the night.
But on the broad daylight, if you take a closer look, you will notice that the bridge is disconnected from the land! Yeap, it’s basically useless.
The Bridge
I first stumble upon this odd bridge where my friend and I were hanging out in Putrajaya during the night. I kinda noticed the bridge seems odd, but I reason it was just dark and I couldn’t see the bridge clearly.
The second time, I was there with my family under the broad daylight. We quickly noticed the bridge is really disconnected from the land, on both sides. We had some pictures and moved on to somewhere else. But, these questions kept popping in my mind: Who built these bridge? Why is it disconnected? What purpose does it serve?
The Investigation
The very next day, I pull out my laptop and started Googling about the mysterious bridge. I typed in ‘putrajaya broken bridge’, half expecting a Wikipedia page to show up. Instead, a Google Map shows up, with the pinpointing a place called ‘Putrajaya Broken Bridge’.
So I clicked in and realized it was the same bridge I was looking for. But this doesn’t answer my questions. So I took a closer look, and found another location, called ‘Jambatan Monorel Putrajaya’. For those who don’t understand Malay, it translates to English as ‘Putrajaya Monorail Bridge’.
And bam! I found our first lead. So for some reason, there are two locations referring to the same bridge. Anyway, Googling with ‘Putrajaya Monorail Bridge’ yields a Wikipedia page (finally!) titled Putrajaya Monorail.
The Truth
After going through the Wikipedia pages and more Googling. The mystery had finally been solved.
The broken bridge is officially named Monorail Suspension Bridge. The construction of the bridge started around 2003 as part of the Putrajaya Monorail. Due to federal budget constraints, the funding is cut and the project is halted since 2004. The small population living there at the time does not justify the cost of the project, which is around 400 million. It has been there for 15 years now (as of 2019）。
The monorail was supposed to connect from Kajang to Putrajaya, which then can be connected to Kuala Lumpur through the ERL KLIA Transit. You can still see the unfinished constructions at Putrajaya Sentral as well.
It was planned to have two lines, covering 18km and 26 stops included the Putra Mosque, the Education Ministry, Putrajaya Hospital, the Putrajaya International Convention Centre, the Alamanda Shopping Centre and Precincts 9 and 14.
MTrans Monorail Sdn Bhd (MTrans) was appointed to finish the project within 30 months. The plan was to have two monorail lines with a total length of 20km, divided into 13.2km for Line 1 and 6.8km for Line 2.
A total of 26 stations were planned, including stops at the Putra Mosque, Education Ministry, Putrajaya Hospital, the Putrajaya International Convention Centre, Alamanda, Precinct 9 and Precinct 14.
Phase I of the project, consisting of 9km of track and 4km of the underground tunnel is built. The now standing Putra Bridge, a three-tiered bridge with the upper deck being pedestrian walkway and vehicle road, while the lower deck is for the monorail passage.
There are rumors that Putrajaya Holdings Sdn Bhd, which is the master developer of Putrajaya administrative capital, is interested to revive the project. This is to accommodate the rising population in the city. If this is true, a circle would be formed between Sungai Buloh, Kajang, and Putrajaya. The circle would be formed with MRT 1 line connecting Sungai Buloh and Kajang, MRT 2 connecting Sungai Buloh and Putrajaya, and the revived project connecting Kajang and Putrajaya.
Where can I find it?
The bridge is now standing in Precinct 4. It is located near the iconic Iron Mosque beside the lake.
The Takeaways
Here’s a summary for what you’ve learned from this post.
- There are 9 bridges in Putrajaya.
- The abandoned bridge known as Monorail Suspension Bridge is part of an abandoned project, the Putrajaya Monorail.
- The project might be revived in the future!
