Bandung government to build monorail to solve traffic woes

Yuli Tri Suwarni, Bandung

The Bandung municipal administration plans to construct a monorail to overcome chronic traffic problems that have caused losses of more than Rp 1 billion (US$105,263) daily in the West Java capital city.

The plan has reportedly been approved by the Bandung Legislative Council.

Anton Sunarwibowo, the Bandung Development Planning Agency (Bappeda) head of infrastructure division, said on Friday that a Malaysian investor had signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the West Java provincial administration to set up a monorail network in the next five to 10 years.

Similarly, the Jakarta administration signed a MOU recently with PT Jakarta Monorail, a consortium of Indonesian and foreign investors, for the construction of a monorail system in the capital.

Idris Yusuf Lubis, who chairs Bandung Legislative Council Commission D on transportation, said that the planned monorail would be the best solution to address the traffic problems in Bandung.

According to a recent study, traffic congestion costs the city Rp 1 billion in losses daily.

Idris said transportation experts from the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) and environmentalists from Padjadjaran University had also supported the plan.

Based on their studies, the best way to resolve the traffic problems confronting residents and tourists in Bandung is to construct a monorail system, he added.

Bappeda is conducting a feasibility study on the project due to differences in views between the municipal and the provincial administration on the routes for the monorail system.

The municipality wanted the monorail to run through the middle of the city from north to south, while the provincial administration said the monorail should run along the Jl. Soekarno-Hatta outer-ring road in the south of the city.

Bandung has only around 17,000 kilometers of roads used by around 575,000 vehicles daily.

Idris quoted transportation experts as saying that ideally the road network should be twice the present scale and that many of the main thoroughfares should be widened.

"However, it's inconceivable to extend and widen roads as the cost would be prohibitive. Compensation would have to be paid for land used for road extensions and too many people would have to be moved due to the project," Idris said.

Anton said the monorail system was expected to cost more than Rp 2 trillion, with the Bandung administration providing the land for the project.