Quo vadis, Jakarta monorail?

Quo vadis, Jakarta monorail?

While Jakarta traffic grows more chaotic day by day, and the
administration is seemingly unable to remedy the situation, the
construction of the city's first monorail, which is expected to
help ease congestion, has been at a virtual standstill since its
work started in June 2004.

The absence of adequate information from the administration as
to why the project has stopped and what has really happened has
provoked understandable public speculation.

Motorists passing along Jl. Asia-Afrika -- the Senayan Stadium
area -- are puzzled when seeing a number of unfinished reinforced
pillars along the median strip, which stand out like white
elephants.

These stumps are the work of PT Jakarta Monorail, a joint
venture between PT Indonesia Transit Central (ITC) with 55
percent, and the Omnico Group of Singapore, which is authorized
to build and manage the monorail project under a 30-year
concession from the Jakarta municipal administration.

Omnico replaced a Malaysian company, MTrans Holding Sdn Bhd,.
with which ITC had signed an MoU in Kuching in August, 2003, at a
ceremony witnessed by then Malaysian prime minister Mahathir
Mohammad and then president Megawati Soekarnoputri.

The project seemed to get off to a good start in mid-June last
year, a month after the awarding of the concession by Governor
Sutiyoso to Jakarta Monorail. Foundations were driven into Jl.
Asia Africa and with great fanfare as Megawati again stood by.
However, the work stopped altogether only after a few weeks.

Omnico later said the MoU between ITC and the Indonesian
Consortium was signed without its approval.

The US$600 million project then changed hands again in July
when ITC, the Indonesian partner of Jakarta Monorail, suddenly
signed a MoU with an Indonesian consortium led by PT Bukaka
Teknik Utama (partly owned by Vice President Jusuf Kalla), with
the support of state-owned PT INKA, the Bandung-based PT LEN
electronics industry and PT Siemens Indonesia.

The oft changes in the partners have undoubtedly led to
allegations that certain parties with strong vested interests and
powerful political backing had jumped on the project.

Before the MoU between ITC and Bukaka was signed, the Jakarta
administration had approved Jakarta Monorail's decision to use
South Korean technology, a form of magnetic levitation or "mag-
lev", which was developed by Rotem. Rotem is part of the Omnico
consortium that also includes Singapore's Mass Rapid Transport
Pte. Ltd. and Singapore Technologies Engineering Pte. Ltd.

The dispute between Jakarta Monorail shareholders escalated
after the Indonesian partner (ITC) and its Konsortium Indonesia,
apparently with the suppport of the Jakarta administration,
decided last month to use Siemens' "straddle" or "buggy"
technology, which they claim is much cheaper than the high-tech
mag-lev system.

While the shareholders of Jakarta Monorail, the holder of the
concession, are embroiled in a dispute, it is the public that is
the real loser, as the project will certainly fall behind
schedule. One has to wonder why the Jakarta administration
allowed the tug-of-war between the business partners to drag on
this long.

If the main concern is technology, the administration must see
to it that Jakarta Monorail chooses the most reliable test-proven
system. In such a case, funding would probably become the second
priority as better technology generally means a safer system.

If the real concern is jobs for local companies, however, it
would be a big risk to award such a modern transportation system
to contractors without any experience and track record because
what would be at stake is public safety.

Many people, who are fed up with traffic gridlock, believe
that monorail system would be compatible to the existing busway
as an alternative to a full MRT and they want this new mode of
transportation be completed on schedule in 2007.

Governor Sutiyono has repeatedly said that he would stake his
reputation on the scheduled completion of the monorail project.

The city administration, therefore, should intervene into
resolving the dispute between the Jakarta Monorail shareholders
in order to speed up the project's implementation.

Otherwise foreign investors will lose whatever little
confidence they have left investing in Indonesia's infrastructure
development.