...three years ahead, Jakartans could use the monorail service....Beijing (ANTARA News) - Minister of National Development Planning Armida S. Alisjahbana urged Jakarta, as the nation`s Capital, to provide better mass transport system to support its citizens mobility effectively.
"As a big city, as well as the nation`s capital, Jakarta badly need a mass transport system," Armida said during a working visit here on Sunday.
Armida, who is also the National Development Planning Board (Bappenas) head, said mass transport development in Jakarta was very essential to serve as the motor for social and economic growth in the region, supported by the growing national economy and development.
In the working visit the Bappenas Head and the Indonesian envoy came to see the control center of Beijing transportation network which is used to monitor 13 subway tracks. The local Administration planned to build 15 of them in the first phase.
The Beijing Administration planned to build 32 subway tracks across the region in two phases.
The first phase consisted of construction of 15 subway tracks with a length of 327 km, while in the second phase, 19 subway tracks would not be built until the next year, monitoring officer Ren Qi Chen said.
By comparison to Jakarta, Beijing would have built 32 subway tracks as far as 651 km in 2015, whereas around 7.59 million passengers are using Beijing subway service everyday.
Meanwhile, director for Transportation Department of Bappenas Bambang Prihartono said Jakarta`s Mass Rapid Transport project had been planned since 1986 and the Administration did some studies of mass transport means in Jakarta which resulted in the establishment of PT. Mass Rapid Transit Jakarta in June 17 2008.
The Administration claimed that they had conducted some planning on transportation system and network improvement as well as the urban transportation and planned to finish the MRT and monorail projects in 2014 at the latest, Bambang said.
The tender process of the MRT project is under way. The first step of the project would the construction of underground tracks as well as overpass track from Lebak Bulus to Hotel Indonesia traffic circle (Bundaran HI).
Previously, the Deputy Governor of Jakarta Basuki Tjahaja Purnama met the officials of the Jakarta Transportation Office, PT. Adhi Karya, PT. Lembaga Elektronika Nasional PT. Industri Kereta Api and PT. Telkom to discuss the monorail project.
The Deputy Governor confidently said that three years ahead, Jakartans could use the monorail service.
The already installed and neglected pillars in some area of Jakarta would be used for the construction of three tracks of monorail which would serve three routes such as Tanah Abang-Palmerah-Mega Kuningan-Senayan; Cawang Atas-Senen-Ancol; and Cawang Atas-Grogol-National Monument.
(A059)
Editor: Ella Syafputri
Copyright © ANTARA 2012
