Neighbors offer city MRT lessons

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Tue, 05/29/2007 8:38 AM | Jakarta

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) operators from Thailand and India are encouraging Jakarta to learn from their experiences in developing its MRT project.

Deputy governor for engineering at the Mass Rapid Transit Authority (MRTA) of Thailand, Yiemchai Chatkeo, said in a seminar here Monday the Thai government authorized the operation of the MRT railway system in his country.

""The government will help the MRTA pay back the principal loan and interest over the first 15 years of MRT operation in Bangkok,"" he said at the seminar, titled ""Successful overseas cases and key principles for MRT setup and operation"". The event was organized by the Jakarta MRT system and attended by MRT operators from Thailand and India.

He said the Thai government provided 84 percent of the funding required for the US$2.5 billion MRT project in Thailand and the private sector made up the remaining 16 percent.

He said for the first 15 years of operation, daily revenue from the 20-kilometer MRT in Bangkok would cover only 15 percent of operational costs, as the system was quite small.

Chatkeo said the city provided alternative routes for street traffic during the construction period to avoid congestion, adding the company transferred around four million cubic meters of soil during the excavation of the underground system.

Yiemchai said the MRT, which started operating three years ago, serves 170,000 to 200,000 passengers a day.

Delhi Metro Rail Corporation managing director E. Sreedharan said the company was a joint-venture of the central government and the Delhi administration. ""But we have full autonomy and there is no interference in management issues.""

Delhi Metro consists of three lines, with a total length of 65.1 km, including 14.5 km of underground tunnels. Its construction started in 1998 and was completed in 2005.

The Delhi Metro project, which cost $2.1 billion, was 60 percent financed by foreign loans and 40 percent by the budgets of the central government and the Delhi administration.

Sreedharan said the Metro yielded an operational profit each day and enabled the company to pay back its loans.

The Jakarta administration plans to establish an integrated MRT system that will include a busway, subway and monorail network.

According to the assistant to the city secretary for development affairs, Nurfakih Wirawan, the administration will establish a Mass Rapid Transit Company (MRTC).

The subway project will span 14.5 kilometers -- including a four-kilometer underground section connecting Dukuh Atas in Central Jakarta, to Lebak Bulus in South Jakarta. It is expected to be completed by 2014. (05)

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