First Phase of MRT Jakarta Construction Reaches 94.6 Percent

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - PT Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) President Director William P. Sabanda said MRT's first phase construction of the South-North corridor has reached 94.6 percent. “We are preparing to operate commercially in March 2019,” William said at Hall C1, Jiexpo Kemayoran, Central Jakarta, Saturday, June 30.

The first phase consists of 13 stations. Seven of them are flyover stations located in Lebak Bulus, Fatmawati, Cipete Raya, Haji Nawi, Blok A, Blok M, and Sisingamangaraja. While the underground stations are located in Senayan, Istora, Bendungan Hilir, Setiabudi, Dukuh Atas, and Hotel Indonesia roundabout.

William said the distance between the stations ranged from 0.8 to 2.2 kilometers with the distance from Lebak Bulus-Roundabout HI for 30 minutes. “Using vehicles is usually up to 1.5 hours,” he said.

The plan is there are 16 series of MRT trains that will operate later. Currently, there are only 2 series that have arrived at the Depot MRT Lebak Bulus. The rest will be shipped in August-November 2018.

The two series, said William, will begin to be tested in August. Then, in December, PT MRT will conduct a whole series of trials as a form of preparation.

William explained, a series of trains consisting of six carriages, each of which can carry 325 passengers with operating time from 05:00 am-12: 00 pm.

“In total, there are about 1,950 people who can be transported in each travel, with a travel every five minutes, so every five minutes the train will come, just imagine every five minutes carrying 1,950 people, said William.

PT MRT has confirmed the signing of a second phase integrated project loan agreement of Rp25.10 trillion done this month. William said the withdrawal of the signing of the loan agreement was caused by administrative matters and cut by Eid holidays.

Previously, PT MRT Jakarta received approval from Jakarta Legislative Council to obtain project loan amounting to Rp25.10 trillion since August 2017. After that, the budgeting process was done by the Ministry of Finance and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

Later, the loan will be used for the second phase construction of MRT Jakarta and the Rp2.56 trillion for the cost of variations order and first phase price adjustment. The cost is much greater than the construction in the first phase of Rp16 trillion because, in the second phase of the construction, there is more underground construction although the length of the path will be shorter.

ADAM PRIREZA