Developer set to build monorail depot next week
Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
After months of little or no progress on the ambitious monorail project, the developer is set to prioritize constructing its nine-hectare depot complex above the West Flood Canal in the crowded Tanah Abang, Central Jakarta.
"The depot will be built on a reinforced concrete platform built above the Canal. The site has been finalized. The construction will start next week," the company's director Sukmawaty Syukur told The Jakarta Post on Friday.
Sukmawaty said that the depot would serve as warehouse as well as a repair shop for monorail cars.
Different from the previous design plan, Sukmawaty said the company scrapped additional plans for an apartment block and a shopping mall conjoined with the depot, due to space constraints.
Previously, the company proposed to build a 20-story apartment block, a five-story shopping mall and several theme parks in the planned 12-hectare depot complex.
Those additional facilities were deemed necessary in a bid to generate side-income in addition to revenue obtained from monorail tickets, which will likely be priced between Rp 3,500 and Rp 7,500.
The construction of the depot above the canal, which is near the Tanah Abang railway station, is also an effort to minimize land clearing problems in the crowded area, which is already overrun by squatters' slums.
Meanwhile, the company's president Ruslan Diwirjo said that the construction of the depot would be followed by the construction of the first five kilometers of the line for trial before the monorail becomes fully operational.
"We will rev up the construction of other parts of the project, including monorail stops or stations and rail lines in March next year after the disbursement of the loans," Ruslan asserted.
The US$650 million monorail project will be financed mostly through soft loans of $300 million and rupiah loans equal to $200 million with 12 percent interest. The remaining $150 million will be provided through equity by the company.
Ruslan admitted that the construction work that had begun on May 19 had hit a snag due to several unexpected changes in the planned route.
The company has changed the route along Jl. Gerbang Pemuda from Jl. Asia-Afrika to Jl. Palmerah in order to integrate the monorail system with commuter trains plying the Tangerang-Jakarta route via Serpong and Bintaro.
In an effort to net more potential passengers, the company has also revised the route to Taman Anggrek shopping mall on Jl. Let Jend. S. Parman, in West Jakarta as the last station instead of Roxy in West Jakarta.
The developer is planning a two-line monorail system, a "green line" that serves a 14.8-kilometer route in the city's lucrative business districts of Kuningan, Sudirman and Senayan and the "blue line" serving a 12.2-kilometer route from Kampung Melayu in East Jakarta to Taman Anggrek in West Jakarta.
The green line is expected to start operations in December 2006, while the blue line would start in early 2007.