Jakarta talks up long-stalled MRT project

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Jakarta administration's dream of having a Mass Rapid Transit system may become a reality as the central government and the city have resumed preparations to develop the project after Japan hinted it may provide soft loans for the venture.

"A joint team consisting of relevant institutions from the central government and city administration is ready to proceed with technical preparations for the project," Jakarta Deputy Governor Fauzi Bowo said over the weekend.

Fauzi said the project, which was first floated in the 1970s and later during the administration of governor Surjadi Soedirdja, was last postponed after the financial crisis in 1997.

He said the administration had requested Coordinating Minister for the Economy Aburizal Bakrie to secure cheap loans for the project since no private companies were interested in bearing the cost.

"No single private company is willing to invest their money in the project because it would take a long time before they got their money back," he said.

During a bilateral meeting last week in Tokyo, Aburizal revealed the Japanese government had expressed its interest in providing soft loans for the subway.

He estimated the project would cost US$800 million for the infrastructure with additional investment for its cars of between $300 million and $400 million.

"However, we will discuss further details of the loan with the Japanese government," Aburizal said.

The assistant to the city secretary for development affairs, Hari Sandjojo, said the central government and the city administration would also finance the project.

"But, we have yet to make any decision over the money we must take from our city budget to help fund it," he said.

Hari said the subway would link the Lebak Bulus bus terminal in South Jakarta and Kota in West Jakarta.

Previously, the planned subway route connected Jl. Fatmawati also in South Jakarta to Kota, but for reasons of efficiency, it had been rerouted in order to take advantage of the existing bus terminal. Under the plan, Lebak Bulus bus terminal would be expanded to become the subway depot.

The development of the subway would be implemented in two stages. The first stage would include the construction of nine elevated stations from Lebak Bulus to Istora in Senayan sports complex in Central Jakarta and three underground stations from Bendungan Hilir in South Jakarta to the National Monument Park in Central Jakarta. The second stage would stretch from Monas to Kota.

Transportation experts have repeatedly said that the MRT was one of the most effective solutions to tackling chronic traffic congestion in the capital, although they also said it would be extremely expensive.

Other observers say the city's messy underground sewer, power and telecommunications networks, its unstable soil structure and its recurrent flooding problems could turn any underground project into a engineering nightmare.