James Kallman, Jakarta – "For seven months Jakarta's motorists have waited patiently in traffic even heavier than normal as they watched the latest public transport dream take shape in Asia's most congested city.
The above was the opening paragraph of an article in the Sydney Morning Herald back in late February 2005. As the final days of 2006 dwindle away, Jakarta's motorists are still waiting, though with increasing impatience, as there has been no visible progress in the construction of the city's monorail system.
In the meantime however, there has been a further increase in the number of vehicles on the road, testament to the growing purchasing power of Indonesian citizens, resulting in greater gridlock.
Journeys that once took 15-20 minutes now routinely demand the best part of an hour, even longer when that quaint phenomenon of rainfall brings the chugging mass to a shuddering halt.
Not that all the blame should be heaped upon the growing number of vehicles however, as several major arteries have undergone radical surgery with the commandeering of rights of way to support the expansion of the Busway System. Then of course, we have the concrete and steel columns that may one day support the monorail system, but at present encroach on public streets, pieces in some apparent game of reality chess where we the general public are just mere pawns.
The initial plan was for private investors to raise US$650 million to build the Jakarta monorail, which they would own and operate for 30 years before handing it over to the Jakarta government. The green line covering the central business district was supposed to come into operation around mid-2007, followed by the interconnecting green line from Kampung Melayu in East Jakarta to Roxy in the West later in the year.
Yet the project has been beset by financing problems since day one, which begs the question as to why PT Jakarta Monorail (JM), a consortium of local private firms, was directly appointed to manage the project in the first place, instead of putting it out to tender. At the very least that would have supported transparency in government and attracted firms or consortia that had both technical and financial capability, which JM has appeared to lack.
The first to have a $540 million contract terminated by JM and the administration was Malaysian company, MTrans Holdings Bhd. Next came an attempt to persuade the central government to provide a sovereign guarantee for loans of some $500 million from the Dubai Islamic Bank, which not unsurprisingly came to naught.
As recently as Monday this week, a new alignment of shareholders of JM has been announced, whereby Omnico Singapore Pte Ltd. saw their holding fall from 45 percent to 2 percent, leaving PT Indonesia Transit Central (ITC) with the lion's share of 98 percent. The reason given was that Omni declined to make further investment, sparked by UTC's insistence on the use of conventional wheels-on-rails rolling stock manufactured by a consortium of Indonesian companies, while Omni preferred the more expensive yet far more advanced magnetic levitation technology produced out of Korea.
Yet again we hear the news that JM has signed an agreement with both local and foreign investors to finance the construction of the two monorail lines, though once more details are shrouded in secrecy. All will be revealed, we're told, by the end of January once "financial closing" has taken place.
Now whether or not this is true, and given past performance there has to be a modicum of doubt, it doesn't alter the fact it is highly unlikely that even the first monorail section covering the central business district will be up and running before the end of 2007, as was the original target.
By then of course the traffic will be even heavier and the jury is still very much out as to whether the monorail will make any major impact, as the introduction of the Busway has not been accompanied by any noticeable reduction in traffic on Jl Thamrin and Sudirman. Much will of course depend on the pricing of fares, as a delicate balance has to maintained in covering overheads while still making it affordable enough to attract sufficient passengers. Nevertheless, Jakarta's monorail is not expected to carry much more than half the passenger load of Bangkok's light rail, which itself pales into insignificance alongside the 1.3 million passenger trips made aboard Singapore's MRT every day.
While any improvement in the public transport system in Jakarta has to be a step in the right direction, how much better it would have been had the construction of the monorail been carried out in an efficient and transparent manner; I mean, any visitor to their website is greeted by this: We're sorry; This Jakarta Monorail site is currently under construction. Please check back at a later time. Business as usual it seems!
[The writer is President Director of PT Moores Rowland Indonesia, Jakarta.]