Transport Ministry Readies Rp180bn for LRT Palembang in 2020
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2 August 2019 20:34 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Transportation Ministry planned to provide a subsidy for the operation of light rail transit or LRT Palembang, South Sumatra, at Rp180 billion in 2020. The figure increased from this year’s Rp123 billion.
“Iin 2019, the subsidy amounted to Rp123 billion, as for 2020 it will be Rp180 billion,” said the Ministry’s Director General of Railway, Zulfikri, at his office, Central Jakarta, Friday, August 2.
Zulfikri explained the subsidy would be allocated for the train operation in a bid to attract the public to use the newly-built transportation mode. To date, the low occupancy rate was not due to people’s purchasing power, but rather a lack of dissemination.
“We are still trying to introduce the new technology of transportation to the public,” he added.
At present, the occupancy rate has shown a good trend. It even reached 100 percent before the 2019 Eid al-Fitr. The highest number of passengers per day reached 9,000 people and 5,000 people on average.
In addition, the ministry will shorten the train interval from 30 to 15 minutes and the travel time to 30-45 minutes from the initial 50 minutes. Zulfikri went on to say that the LRT Palembang would be integrated with other transportation modes, such as Transmusi buses.
EKO WAHYUDI
