Differences over monorail widens
Differences over monorail widens
Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The prolonged dispute between the shareholders of PT Jakarta
Monorail (JM) over who will supply the monorail trains and
support technology threatens to further delay the US$650 million
project.
The dispute revolves around the desire of Indonesian Transit
Central (ITC) to name a consortium of local companies to supply
the trains and technology, while Omnico Singapore Pte Ltd.
insists on using South Korea's Rotem technology.
In a media conference on Friday, Omnico, which holds 45
percent of the shares of JM, denied statements made by officials
of the Jakarta administration and ITC about Rotem.
The statements, according to Omnico chairman Abdul Rahman,
insinuated that the technology offered by the South Korean
company was too expensive and that the company wanted too much
money for the project.
Governor Sutiyoso has previously supported ITC's desire to
appoint local companies to supply the trains for the monorail
project using technology provided by Siemens of Germany.
According to ITC president director Ruslan Diwirjo, this would
lower the total cost of the project to less than $500 million,
much lower than the estimated cost of $826 million using Rotem's
magnetic levitation (Maglev) technology.
Abdul Rahman flatly denied these figures, saying the actual
cost of the project using Rotem's technology would be about $540
million.
He also denied that Omnico had made several other demands,
including a government subsidy and equity, plus the inclusion of
60 percent of the turnover from electronic road pricing (ERP) in
the project's costs.
He also said the ticket prices for the two planned monorail
lines would be in the hands of the city administration and would
not be determined by the ultimate cost of the project.
The monorail system will consist of two lines. The first line,
to be called the Green Line, would link the business districts of
Kuningan and Sudirman in South Jakarta, while the second line, to
be called the Blue Line, would serve a less lucrative corridor
from Kampung Melayu in East Jakarta to the Taman Anggrek shopping
center in West Jakarta.
Abdul Rahman stressed that PT Jakarta Monorail had not yet
made any decision about who would supply the monorail trains and
the supporting technology.
"Omnico particularly regrets the various recent reports in the
media of statements by unauthorized persons about the company's
involvement in the Jakarta Monorail project; statements which we
consider one-sided and which seriously misrepresent our
position," he said.
He was referring to the appointment by ITC of the Indonesia
Consortium of Monorail Industries (ICMI), led by the Bukaka
Group.
ICMI includes state rolling stock maker PT INKA and state
electronics firm PT LEN Industry.
Abdul Rahman stressed that Omnico preferred Maglev technology,
which he said had undergone 15 years of design development,
engineering, testing and operation.
He doubted the capability of ICMI to manufacture monorail
technology with superior safety systems after only several months
of manufacturing.
Meanwhile, ITC director Sukmawaty Syukur said the selection of
the local consortium as the rolling stock supplier was final
because JM had signed an agreement with the city administration.
She played down Abdul Rahman's hesitation about the ability of
the consortium to create a safe monorail system.
According to Sukmawaty, she had documents about Omnico offers,
including project costs and a request for part of the ERP
turnover.
"They can deny, but we have evidence," she told The Jakarta
Post by phone.