TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo announced the progress of the Mass Rapid Transit project. The President stated that Jakarta’s MRT tunnel has been entirely connected per Thursday, February 23, 2017.

“Today we announce that all of MRT tunnel has been connected,” said Jokowi during his survey to the location of the project.

President Jokowi said that the MRT will be fully operational by March 2019 but will be prepared as early as 2018 during the Asian Games competition. He hopes that the project could be completed within its planned schedule.

Following the funding, Jokowi emphasized that there are many sources of funding combination that can be used. “There are many sources of its funding, it can be obtained from the State Budget, or from the combination of State Budget (APBN) and Local Budget (APBD), it could come from PPP partnership between the government and business entities. It can also come from investments,” the President said.

Jokowi said the combination of funding needs to be realized in order to accelerate the nation’s infrastructure constructions. “In my opinion, we’ve yet to receive complaints regarding the funding from the ministry or SOEs,” he said.

The President was accompanied by Minister of Public Works and Public Housing (PUPR) Basuki Hadimoeljono, and Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama.

ANTARA