The cable news network placed the SMART tunnel alongside the Channel Tunnel which links Britain with continental Europe, Laerdal Tunnel (Norway), the Gotthard Base Tunnel of Switzerland, Tokyo Bay Aqua-Line (Japan) and Eisenhower Tunnel (USA), as a great engineering feat.
Also named in the top 10 tunnels are the Bund Sightseeing Tunnel (China), Japan’s Seikan Tunnel, Spiralen Tunnel (Norway) and Guoliang Tunnel (China).
In an article published on its website, CNN had quoted Alun Thomas, who is head of tunnels at engineering consultancy Ramboll, detailing how the SMART tunnel works.
“SMART is a combined road and flood relief tunnel. It can be completely flooded to get rid of storm water and turned back into a road in a few hours,” he said.
The SMART tunnel which is 9.7 kilometres long is the longest stormwater tunnel in South-East Asia and second longest in Asia. It functions as a storm drainage and road structure and was built to deal with flash floods in Kuala Lumpur.
It is also meant to reduce traffic jams along Jalan Sungai Besi and the Loke Yew flyover at Pudu during the rush hour.
The two components of SMART, comprising the storm tunnel and motorway tunnel, also makes it the longest multi-purpose tunnel in the world.
Many Malaysians went online to praise the SMART tunnel after the CNN news article was shared on social media.