Malaysian firm dropped from monorail project

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