Private sector tapped for busway system
Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The city administration has invited private companies to take part in procuring buses to be operated on the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), or busway system, scheduled to begin services later this year from Blok M in South Jakarta to Kota in Central Jakarta.
The assistant to the city secretary for development affairs, Irzal Djamal, said the city administration was only able to purchase up to 60 buses, while 140 buses were needed to serve the 12.9-kilometer BRT corridor.
"We invite those who are interested in the business to procure the buses, which are scheduled to begin operation in December," Irzal said on Saturday.
The Blok M-Kota corridor would be the first of a planned 15 BRT corridors in the city.
BRT systems are successfully operated in a number of major cities around the world, where they have helped to resolve various transportation problems.
Experts here, however, have expressed pessimism that the busway project in Jakarta will be successful, saying that the necessary preparations have not been made. They said, as an example, that before the busway project in Bogota, Columbia, was launched, an intensive campaign was undertaken to introduce the system to the public.
The experts say such an intensive public information campaign is needed here because nearly all Indonesians are unfamiliar with the system. They say the next step would be to then hold a poll to gauge public opinion of the proposed system.
The city administration has not yet decided whether such a poll is needed before the busway system begins operating.
Irzal said a small team dealing with the financial aspects of the system would also discuss the payment system for bus operators taking part in the system.
Irzal, who chairs the busway project, said the subteam for management and financial affairs was one of four subteams set up to prepare for the system. The three other subteams are dealing with infrastructure, operations and the impact of the system on city traffic.
Meanwhile, the head of the City Transportation Agency, Rustam Effendi, said that besides being invited to take part in procuring buses for the BRT, private investors also were being asked to manage the 60 buses that will be purchased by the administration.
"They will be invited to provide drivers and maintain the buses. Those bus operators whose routes will be affected by the busway project will be given priority," Rustam said.
The city administration has said the busway system is part of a comprehensive concept of the city's transportation system, which was designed by the administration's consultant on transportation issues, Sutanto Hoesodo of the University of Indonesia. The transportation system is expected to be fully developed by 2010.
According to officials, busway and railway systems will form the backbone of the city's transportation system in the future.
"This recently revealed concept will become the main reference point in developing the city's transportation system," Rustam said.