Malaysian firm dropped from monorail project

Indonesian Transit Central (ITC), a local consortium in charge of the monorail project, revealed on Monday it had dropped Malaysian firm MTrans Holding Sdn. Bhd. from the top investor position and was trying to persuade Japanese firm Hitachi to carry out the project.

"We officially deleted MTrans from the list on Feb. 28," ITC chief executive officer Ruslan Diwirjo said.

Feb. 28 was the deadline for MTrans to give its final reply on whether it would go ahead with the project.

MTrans said at the end of January that it needed some time to resolve technical and financial issues concerning the monorail project as Jakarta demanded the simultaneous construction of both lucrative and less lucrative lines in the capital.

Ruslan said the Jakarta administration was likely to choose Hitachi to carry out the project, as Governor Sutiyoso was now on a visit to Japan at Hitachi's invitation to observe the monorail system there.

Sutiyoso said earlier last week Hitachi was willing to meet the requirement to construct the lucrative "green" line, which will encompass a 14.8-kilometer route serving the city's golden triangle of Kuningan, Sudirman and Senayan.

The second, the "blue" line, which is considered less lucrative, will connect a 12.2-kilometer route from Kampung Melayu, East Jakarta to Roxy, West Jakarta. -- JP