TransJakarta set to become corporate entity

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Jakarta administration revealed Thursday that it would transform the TransJakarta Busway Management (BP TransJakarta) into a corporate entity in order to boost flexibility in handling the planned 15 busway corridors in the capital.

"In principal, we will go with the recommendation of the independent consultants over the change of the status of the management to a corporate entity," City Secretary Ritola Tasmaya told The Jakarta Post at City Hall.

He said the status of the corporate entity would enable the management to be much more flexible in handling busway business, especially in relation to cooperation with private partners and busway financing.

Citing the recommendations presented by two independent consultants to the management -- including Ernest and Young Public Accountants -- on Wednesday, he said that management would find difficult to cope with dozens of private companies involved in various systems of the busway should the administration maintain the current status of management as a non-structural organization under the city administration.

"Private companies will require stronger legal grounds for cooperation," he said.

Besides, with its new status, he said, management would be able to raise money on its own, for instance, from advertising on buses or shelters, to help fund the business.

Ritola revealed that the administration was preparing a detailed draft bylaw to change the status of the Busway management into a corporate entity, which would be submitted to City Council for approval.

"We hope the management would have a new status of corporate entity within two months from now should the council pass our proposed draft bylaw," he said.

TransJakarta Busway Management has repeatedly complained that it could not use the revenue it collects from tickets because the funds have to be transferred to city coffers. It cannot immediately repair damaged lanes, for instance, since the authority and funds to repair the lanes is in the hands of the City's Public Works Agency.

Aside from the Public Works Agency, at least four other agencies are involved in some way with management of the Busway, including the City Transportation Agency, which handles shelters and traffic signs; the City Park Agency that is in charge of median strips; the City Public Order Agency that provides security personnel and the City Public Illumination and Road Infrastructure Agency that handles street lighting along the corridors.

The management's head Irzal Z Djamal welcomed the plan to change the status of Busway's management.

"The new status as a corporate entity will boost efficiency since we would be able to focus on our main task of coordinating the private companies from whom we outsource in the business," he told the Post.

"We would maintain small numbers of employees in the company and allow most work to be done by private companies."

So far, the Busway management only manages the operation of the first busway corridor from Blok M in South Jakarta to Kota in West Jakarta. This route become operational mid-January last year.

By the end of this year, the administration plans to finalize development of the second and third routes linking Pulogadung in East Jakarta and Harmoni in Central Jakarta, and Harmoni to Kalideres in West Jakarta.