Jakarta talks up long-stalled MRT project

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.