City company to launch CNG-powered busway in December
Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The city administration said on Wednesday that the second and third busway corridors would start operating in December, despite delays in their construction due to financial problems.
"We are sticking to the original plan of launching the corridors in December," Jakarta City Secretary Ritola Tasmaya told reporters at City Hall.
Fears have been increasing that the two corridors -- Pulogadung-Harmoni and Harmoni-Kalideres -- would not be completed on time due to delays in the disbursement of funding from the city administration.
Ritola said that 71 buses, powered by compressed natural gas (CNG), would initially serve the two routes starting in December.
The city administration would build natural gas pipelines to keep the buses fueled in cooperation with state CNG supplier Perusahaan Gas Negara (PGN).
Two CNG stations would be built along the two busway routes -- one at Rawabuaya in West Jakarta and another on Jl. Perintis Kemerdekaan, East Jakarta.
"We are now asking for help from the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT) to appoint one of four private sector firms to operate the CNG system," said Hari Sandjono, the assistant to the city secretary for development affairs, without naming the firms.
Hari said the BPPT would make the final decision on the appointment of the CNG operator in mid-August.
Meanwhile, PT Trans Batavia, the consortium that will operate the new busways, confirmed that the buses on the new routes would use CNG and said that 71 buses with CNG engines had been ordered from South Korean busmaker Daewoo.
"The buses will arrive next month," said I Gusti Ngurah Oka, an advisor to the board of directors of Mayasari Bakti, which controls 50 percent of the shares in the consortium.
Aside from Mayasari Bakti, the consortium consists of three other bus companies -- Steady Safe with 23 percent of the shares, state bus company PPD with 22 percent and PT Metromini with 5 percent.
Unlike the buses plying the city's first busway corridor from Blok M in South Jakarta to Kota in West Jakarta, which have manual transmissions, the new buses will have automatic transmissions so that the drivers will find them more comfortable and easy to drive, Oka said.
During the first days of the first busway route's operation in January of last year, many of the buses transmissions were damaged as some drivers used the same gear while driving between bus stops due to the relatively short distances between them.
Trans Batavia said that during the start-up phase, 71 buses would serve the new routes, but that the number would gradually be increased to 204.
The Jakarta administration plans to transform TransJakarta Busway Management (BP TransJakarta), a non-structural organization under the city administration, into a corporate entity in order to boost flexibility in handling the proposed 15 busway corridors in the capital.