INDONESIA: Work could start in the fourth quarter of this year on the first phase of a light rail network in Jakarta, the President of state-owned construction firm PT Adhi Karya, Kiswodarmawan, told the company’s annual meeting on March 20.
Last year the Ministry of State Enterprises selected Adhi Karya to build a monorail to Bekasi in the east of the city, but the government has now decided that it should build a light rail line instead.
The first phase would run for 18 km from Grogol in the city centre to Cawang in the southeast via Semanggi, and then 16 km south to Cibubur. End-to-end journey time is expected to be 15 min from Cibubur to Cawang and 20 min from there to the city centre. With a design capacity of 360 000 passengers per day, the line is expected to open in 2018.
Kiswodarmawan said the company was already studying a 16 km second phase which would run east from Cawang to East Bekasi, potentially parallelling the Jakarta – Cikampek toll road.
Adhi Karya plans to finance 30% of the estimated Rp9·9tr cost of phase 1 from a Rp2·7tr right issue, and the remaining 70% from bank loans. The government is to expected to contribute up to Rp1·4tr of the rights issue through an economic stimulus package in the 2015 state budget.
The company envisages that the rolling stock could be built locally under licence, potentially from Bombardier or Hitachi. Operations would be the responsibility of a new joint venture company, with Singapore Mass Rapid Transit Corp providing consultancy services.
