Half of the 88 trains ordered for the Downtown Line have arrived in Singapore.
The 44 trains, yet to be painted in operator SBS Transit's livery, will be used for Phase 2 of the MRT line - which will run from Bukit Panjang to Rochor.
The line is scheduled to open by the first quarter of next year, and it runs through the affluent Bukit Timah corridor.
The new three-car, fully automated trains are made by Canadian manufacturer Bombardier Transportation.
The first order of 73 trains, costing $571 million, was placed in 2008. In 2013, an order for 15 additional trains costing $119.2 million was placed.
Eight trains are already in operation on Downtown Line 1 that serves Marina South.
All the new trains will eventually be stabled at the 21ha Gali Batu Depot in Woodlands.
The massive facility is about twice the size of the underground Kim Chuan Depot, which serves the Circle Line.
Around 2,000 old graves at the Kwong Hou Sua Teochew Cemetery, a little-known graveyard said to date back to the 1940s, were exhumed to make way for the Gali Batu Depot.
The depot is scheduled to be completed this year. But the Land Transport Authority is already expanding its capacity.
It recently awarded a $137.4 million contract to Hock Lian Seng Infrastructure to design and build additional stabling - train berthing - at the facility.
The project is expected to be completed by November 2019.
This article was first published on Feb 10, 2015.
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