Smartcard developed for toll road users
Smartcard developed for toll road users
JAKARTA (JP): In a bid to improve its service to users, state- owned tollroad operator PT Jasa Marga plans to introduce a new card for drivers to use to pass through tollgates, an official said on Saturday.
Operational director Marijanto told reporters on Saturday that, by using the card, drivers should expect to spend just one- and-a-half seconds at the tollgates, which is four-and-a-half seconds less than the current system. "Hopefully, there will be no car queue at the gates", he said.
Drivers who don't want to use the card can still buy regular tickets at tollbooths.
The company, in cooperation with Bank Exim, had previously launched a similar card, like a credit card, Marijanto said. "Drivers had to slide the card through the machines made available at the booths." However, this kind of card failed to gain popularity.
"We will try the new service around Greater Jakarta this coming November, particularly on the highway leading to Soekarno- Hatta International Airport," he said. "But the official launching of the card will be early next year."
The new card will cost at least Rp 50,000 and will also function as a debit card. "This means that each time the card is used the value will decrease as much as the toll. And the owner will be able to refill the card like a cellular phone prepaid card," Marijanto told The Jakarta Post.
When using the card, called Contactless Smartcard, drivers do not need to make any contact with tollbooth attendants, or card machines at the gates. "Drivers just need to insert the card into a machine located half-a-meter from the tollgate and everything is processed automatically," said Marijanto.
The company would invest a total of Rp 30 billion for the production of the cards and the machines as well as the installment of the new system, he added.
Marijanto noted that as many as 20,000 cards would initially be made available. "Should the demand for the cards increase, we will produce more cards."
Profit
In a related development, the company director of development and commercial, Frans S. Sunito, revealed that only five of 13 tollroads managed by PT Jasa Marga made a profit.
"The lucrative highways, which have more than 50,000 cars using them everyday are the Jagorawi, the Jakarta-West Tangerang and the Prof. Sedyatmo Tollroad leading to Soekarno-Hatta Airport, the Jakarta-Cikampek and the Surabaya-Gempol highways."
All the other tollroads were used by less than 10,000 cars everyday, he said.
Separately, president director of PT Jasa Marga Syarifuddin Alambai said that the government was still discussing the proposal of increasing the tariff for tollroads, which had been refused by the House of Representatives.
The hike would be between 17 and 50 percent.
"The revised proposal will be submitted to the House in September," Syarifuddin said.
He said the company needed more money to improve its service to tollroad users and to build new highways. (04)