Sentul Depot located at Sentul West, Kuala Lumpur was once the largest complex of railway workshops in Malaysia with a history dating back to 1905. The 200,000-square feet depot was once the finest engineering workshops in the world and served the needs of the Federated Malay States Railways (FMSR) in the early 1900s up to the early 2000s for Keretapi Tanah Melayu Berhad (KTM Berhad).
The depot consists of numerous large brick buildings and metal sheds primarily used once as railway depots, engineering workshops and storage areas for steam and diesel locomotives and railway cars. Activities include assembly and servicing of railway carriages. Majority of the parts needed by the rail industry were manufactured in the foundry, sawmills and workshops located at the complex. At its height, the depot even built train parts to serve the railway network in India. This historical depot had shaped the identity of Sentul over years with its community of over 5,000 railway workers in its heyday.
Sentul Depot is still the largest train depot in Malaysia today, but is currently inoperative after decades of use, and the majority of connecting railway lines to the north and west dismantled. Until the early 2000s, the depot was still in use by KTM and also housed many decommissioned locomotives, but was eventually closed down in 2009 after its operations moved to a replacement depot in Batu Gajah, Perak.
Plans are in the pipeline to preserve this historical colonial brickwork complex with a long-term restoration and reuse plan by YTL Land. This is in line with its urban renewal masterplan for Sentul to revitalise the aging railway town as the destination of choice in Kuala Lumpur to live, work and play. The ultimate plan is to transform Sentul Depot into a must-visit lifestyle destination of Kuala Lumpur, inspired by famous heritage destinations across great cities such as the Meat Packing District of New York and Xintiandi of Shanghai.
Sentul Depot is a continuation of YTL Land’s reuse and rejuvenation efforts in Sentul West since the early 2000s. The first was the transformation of a former 9-hole golf course into Sentul Park, hence the conservation of a rare green lung in Kuala Lumpur city. The was followed by the restoration of a century-old inoperative railway workshop by Sentul Park to become The Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre (klpac) in 2005 to support, cultivate and sustain the local arts community. Ultimately, the plan for Sentul Depot is to seamlessly link the depot with klpac and Sentul Park as one integrated lifestyle destination to serve the immediate vicinity of Sentul and the whole Kuala Lumpur city at large.
For more information or to view this stunning space, e-mail us at askmeaboutdepot@ytl.com.my or call us at +603-2143 3000.
