New busway corridors to open before fully finished<\/p>\n
Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post\/Jakarta<\/p>\n
The city administration is planning to launch busway corridors II
\nand III on Jan. 15 despite the fact that work along the routes is
\nstill under way and only a few buses are available to ply them.<\/p>\n
Corridor I stretches from Pulogadung in East Jakarta to
\nHarmoni in Central Jakarta, while corridor II is from Harmoni to
\nKalideres in West Jakarta.<\/p>\n
Jakarta Transportation Agency head Nurachman said on Thursday
\nthat the soft opening would be on Jan. 15 with only 23 buses
\nplying the route from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m.<\/p>\n
Busway operator PT TransBatavia plans to operate 71 buses
\nalong the two routes. TransBatavia is owned by several city bus
\noperators.<\/p>\n
He said that fares for the new corridors would be Rp 2,000 (20
\nU.S. cents) from 5 a.m. to 7 a.m. and Rp 3,500 from 7 a.m. to 10
\np.m. Corridor I from Blok M in South Jakarta to Kota in West
\nJakarta will also apply the same fare system.<\/p>\n
Nurachman said tryout bus runs would be held from Dec. 15,
\n2005 to Jan. 14, 2006, using two empty buses that would not pick
\nup any passengers.<\/p>\n
\"Full operation of the two corridors will begin in April with
\n71 buses,\" he announced on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Nurachman acknowledged that only eight of the 23 buses for the
\nsoft opening were new, while the remaining 15 buses would come
\nfrom those currently plying corridor I.<\/p>\n
This means that only eight buses will use compressed natural
\ngas (CNG), while the other buses use diesel fuel.<\/p>\n
Previously, Governor Sutiyoso and other relevant officials in
\nthe administration repeatedly said that all buses in corridors II
\nand III would use CNG.<\/p>\n
Bylaw No.2\/2005 on air pollution control requires all public
\ntransportation vehicles in the capital to use CNG after February
\nnext year, but the city lacks facilities for utilizing CNG.<\/p>\n
Currently, the city administration is constructing two CNG
\nstations -- one on Jl. Perintis Kemerdekaan in East Jakarta and
\nthe other on Jl. Daan Mogot in West Jakarta -- as filling
\nstations for buses operating along corridors II and III.<\/p>\n
That busway corridors II and III are not 100 percent ready to
\nopen for business can be seen from the amount of unfinished
\ninfrastructure, including shelters at the Kalideres bus terminal,
\na overpass on Jl. Hasyim Azhari and the interchange terminal in
\nHarmoni.<\/p>\n
As the overpass and interchange terminal are not ready, busway
\nbuses will for the time being travel along Jl. Suryopranoto,
\nTomang, and Jl. S. Parman, instead of Jl. Hasyim Ashari as
\ninitially planned.<\/p>\n
The trial buses will not enter the Kalideres bus terminal
\nuntil a busway shelter has been built there.<\/p>\n
Nurachman said that as the city administration was unable to
\nsupply 71 buses for the two corridors, other buses would be
\nallowed to continue operating along the routes for now.<\/p>\n
The city allocated about Rp 500 billion for the construction
\nof the two corridors and has proposed a Rp 800 billion budget to
\ndevelop four more busway corridors in 2006.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/new-busway-corridors-to-open-before-fully-finished-1447893297",
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