Jakarta – City-owned busway operator PT Transjakarta has suspended the operation of 60 buses following a fire that engulfed one of its buses on Monday evening in Central Jakarta.
The bus caught fire at 8.33 p.m. on Monday on Jl. Pos Nomor 2 in Pasar Baru, Sawah Besar, Central Jakarta. No casualties were reported.
"We are still waiting for the police investigation [into the cause of the fire]," Transjakarta technical and facilities director Wijanarko said on Tuesday, reported kompas.com.
Wijanarko said the company had suspended the buses to prevent the recurrence of a similar incident. The buses would resume operation once the police had finished investigating the fire, he added.
Transjakarta president director Agung Wicaksono said the bus that caught fire and all suspended buses were of the Hino brand that were purchased in 2017.
"Their maintenance is taken care of by Hino ATPM [licensed sole distributor]. We purchased [the buses] as well as their maintenance under a service contract," he said, and that Transjakarta had conducted standard pre-operation checks on all their buses.
He declined to speculate on why the bus caught fire. "We will first evaluate [all buses]. We will use the police investigation results as a reference for better future steps," he said. (ami)