Tangerang set to launch own busway system

The Tangerang municipal administration has announced that residents will be able to enjoy its bus rapid transit (BRT) system linking Poris Plawad terminal and West Jakarta’s Kalideres terminal starting August.

“We have made an agreement with the Jakarta regional transportation company PPD, which the administration has appointed as the BRT system operator,” municipal office secretary Harry Mulya Zain told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

He said that the PPD would start operating 10 buses in August. “Should the first line of the BRT system prove successful, we will expand the service to connect Kalideres to Serpong in South Tangerang and to Citra Raya in Cikupa, Tangerang regency,” Harry said.

The Tangerang administration initially planned to start operating the BRT system in August last year and had readied the exclusive bus lanes and shelters in July 2011.

But the launch of the service was delayed after the land transportation directorate at the Transportation Ministry failed to deliver 25 buses as promised.

“The infrastructure we previously prepared for the 12-kilometer-long bus line has been damaged in some parts and we will have to spend more funds from the city budget to repair it,” Harry said.

Separately, Tangerang Public Works Agency head Fatchulhadi said the administration initially planned for the BRT to have 13 buses plying the Poris–Kalideres route while the remaining 12 buses would remain on standby, but the ministry had supplied only 10 buses.

The ministry, he said, had set the fares at between Rp 3,000 and Rp 3,500 for a one-way trip, which means the Tangerang administration will have to subsidize them.

“It means that the Tangerang administration has to earmark at least Rp 15 billion from its 2012 budget for the subsidy,” he said.