To ease traffic flow in and around the city, the Government came up with the Greater Kuala Lumpur Traffic Masterplan, to provide a system of ring roads and radial roads. The ring roads include the Middle Ring Roads (MRR I and MRR II) while the major radial roads include the Federal Highway, New Klang Valley Expressway (NKVE), Jalan Damansara and Jalan Bangsar.
The existing road network on the west of the city was already congested and was unable to cope with increased traffic from new and future developments. At least, eight new developments have come up in the areas of Damansara, Penchala, Bukit Lanjan and Sungai Buloh development with an additional of about half a million population. Therefore the critical existing road network had to be improved to provide the increased traffic volume and to relieve congestion.
The concession Company for the SPRINT Highway project is Sistem Penyuraian Trafik KL Barat Sdn Bhd (SPRINT). On 23 October 1997, the concession agreement was signed between the Government of Malaysia and SPRINT for the privatization of the improvement, upgrading, design, construction, maintenance, operations and management of SPRINT Highway. A Supplementary Agreement was subsequently signed on 4 September 1998 to defer the construction of the Penchala Link. The Concession Period is for 33 years and commenced on the Effective Date on 15 December 1998. After this period, the toll collection will cease and the highways will be handed over to the government.
SPRINT Highway is a Government project privatised through a Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) contract agreement awarded to Sistem Penyuraian Trafik KL Barat Sdn Bhd. SPRINT Highway is a 26.5 km, 6-lane dual carriageway free-flow highway with three much-needed links to ease congestion in the west of Kuala Lumpur. It is designed to:
- Serve as a dispersal road system to allow traffic to disperse or move out from congested areas
- Ease traffic congestion and provide for increased road capacity in the west of Kuala Lumpur
- Serve as a critical spine road network supporting infrastructure and catalysing growth and development to the west of Kuala Lumpur.
Since the operation of Kerinchi Link and Damansara Link in 2001, followed with Penchala Link in 2004, the concessionaire, Sistem Penyuraian Trafik KL Barat Shd Bhd is committed to meet its highway operational objective:
- Serve as a dispersal road system to allow traffic to disperse or move out from congested areas
- Ease traffic congestion and provide for increased road capacity in the west of Kuala Lumpur
- Serve as a critical spine road network supporting infrastructure and catalysing growth and development to the west of Kuala Lumpur.