Elevated railway or subway suitable: City official

JAKARTA (JP): In the midst of uncertainty over whether the city will have an elevated railway track or a subway, officials said either would do to start easing Jakarta's traffic woes.

Deputy Governor for Economic and Development Affairs Tb. M. Rais said yesterday the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) project, either elevated or underground, should have started already.

Rais could not say whether both would be built.

Rais and Governor Surjadi Soedirdja said they could not yet announce the contributions which might help fund the project.

The elevated railway track and the subway systems are the two proposed MRT systems from South Jakarta to downtown Kota.

An elevated rail would be part of a three layer transport system, comprising rail, turnpikes and regular roads, proposed by the Citra business group, led by businesswoman Siti Hardiyanti Rukmana, who is the President's daughter.

The subway is proposed by a study team under the auspices of the Agency for Technology Assessment and Application.

The consortium proposing to build it is called the Indonesian Japan European Group. The President's son, Bambang Trihatmodjo joined the consortium in July.

City officials and the subway project team's executives have said the subway project can only start after a presidential decree is issued.

A public works ministry official had said the three layer system does not need a presidential decree.

An agreement between the Minister of Public Works, the Minister of Transportation and the Governor would suffice, Kompas reported yesterday.

Citra Group chief executive officer Bambang Soeroso said with an investment of Rp 5.8 trillion the three layer system could start this year.

Earlier city officials and representatives from the subway consortium said they could start in April if the presidential decree was issued.

On Tuesday the consortium estimated the project would cost Rp 4.5 trillion.

Bambang Trihatmodjo was scheduled to sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) at City Hall yesterday. The MOU was not signed for unclear reason.

Despite the time to start the project was fast approaching Surjadi and Rais said it was not time yet to announce how the public would pay for the project.

"We have to be very careful," Surjadi said. "People would immediately reject it if we talked about taxes or fees." The situation could be similar to when toll roads were introduced.

People rejected the idea of paying tolls "but now everyone is building toll roads" when the benefits began to show, he said.

Meanwhile Rais said the city would wait for the new law on taxes and fees to come into effect because current tax law was confusing.

Both officials and councilors have denied new taxes would be used to help fund the subway project. (anr)