City company to launch CNG-powered busway in December
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.