Finally set to roll-
Jakarta’s first mass rapid transit (MRT) project is finally set to commence after the national government and the Jakarta capital administration reached an agreement on sharing the loan burden earlier in January. Over the past 15–20 years, Jakarta has experienced rising congestion on its roads. Yet, it has failed to augment its public transport capacity to keep up with the increasing demand. With the MRT project, the city will join the ranks of other major cities in the region, such as Singapore and Bangkok, which have established metro networks.
The metro project involves the development of a 110 km network that comprises the North–South (23.8 km) and East–West (87 km) corridors. For the initial part of the project, the focus will be on constructing the North–South corridor (in two phases). The North–South corridor will pass through the city’s key business district along Jalan Sudirman and Jalan Thamrin. When completed, the first phase expects to see a ridership of over 400,000.
Financing resolved
For years, the implementation of the project had been stymied by the lack of consensus on cost sharing. The total cost of the MRT network is estimated to be about Rp 110 trillion (including annual operational costs of Rp 200 billion), which would translate into a per km cost of Rp 1 trillion. The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is providing about 85 per cent of the financing under the Special Term for Economic Partnership scheme, with the remainder of the funds coming from the country’s state and regional budgets.
In January 2013, the central government and the Jakarta administration reached a deal on the cost sharing structure for the initial investment of Rp 15.7 trillion. This agreement took nearly seven years of negotiations between the two levels of government bodies. Based on this deal, the cost sharing will be divided in a 49:51 ratio, with the city administration taking the majority share. Although the central government is footing the smaller share of the cost, the amount is still more than what it had originally intended to pay. Had they followed the terms of the 2005 agreement between JICA, the central government, and the Jakarta administration, the cost burden would have been split 42:58, with the city government bearing the majority share. Therefore, the revised deal lowers the city administration’s cost burden by Rp 1 trillion.
The city government had argued for a lower burden to keep the ticket prices at an average of Rp 15,000. Even at this level, it will need to dole out a daily subsidy estimated at Rp 9.47 billion. Since the city government is also bearing a hefty loan repayment burden for its public bus service, the metro-related loan burden would severely undermine its finances.
The end of the deadlock over financing is good news for the project since it will result in the utilisation of more than Rp 1 trillion of the funds disbursed by JICA, which have so far been unused, because of the delays in the project.
Project status
PT Mass Rapid Transit Jakarta, owned largely by the provincial government of Jakarta, is the implementing agency for this project. It was established in 2008 as a land transport service provider for developing public railway infrastructure and facilities. Responsible for all phases of the metro project, the company will enter into various contracts for its implementation.
Preliminary groundwork for the project has been completed with JICA funding. So far, JICA has disbursed Rp 5.6 trillion for the project, or about a third of the total amount of its loan. A major portion of the funds has been utilised for basic engineering design consultancy work and tender assistance. In addition, the funding has also been used to award a project management consulting services contract to an international consortium comprising leading firms from Japan, India, and Indonesia. The pre-qualification process and bidding for the awarding of the construction contract has been completed. Table 2 provides the status of the key contracts. Construction of the first line is scheduled to begin in 2013.
Design and technology for optimal performance
Based on the design, the metro stations will have both concourse and platform levels. Stations will either have an island or a side platform. The majority of the stations will ensure barrier-free access to all commuters. In addition, the stations along the metro route will be integrated with other modes of mass transport such as the busway, the Greater Jakarta railway, the monorail, and the waterway systems.
The project is adopting the latest software and hardware technologies in order to achieve a high level of operational efficiency, as well as safety and security. For instance, an automatic train protection system will be set up, with train operations controlled from an operation control centre. To ensure passenger safety, platform screen doors will be installed. Further, the stations will have automatic fare system which will encompass automatic gates and ticket vending machines. As for rolling stock, an initial 16 sets of six-car train sets (a total of 96 cars) will be procured for the project.
In a nutshell, the metro promises to usher in an era of greater comfort, safety, and speed in city travel. With the completion of the first line of the metro project, Jakarta will join the ranks of other Southeast Asian cities with clean and efficient public transport helping ease the increasing traffic congestion on its roads. The successful implementation of this project would in turn pave the way for development of other similar projects across Indonesia.
