New Transjakarta corridor slated for completion in December

The Transjakarta Bus Rapid Transit Management Authority (BLU) revealed on Tuesday that the construction of Transjakarta Corridor XII, which will link Tanjung Priok and Pluit, all in North Jakarta, would be finished by the end of the year.

“[The construction] will be complete in December,” said BLU chief Muhammad Akbar on Tuesday.

Currently, Akbar said, his office was opening a tender for bus operators who wished to operate in the soon-to-be-opened corridor. As previously reported, the Jakarta Transportation Agency has been preparing some 36 articulated busses to serve the 20-kilometer corridor.

The new corridor, according to tempo.co, will cut across Corridor X, which runs from Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta to Cililitan, East Jakarta; Corridor V, which runs from Ancol, North Jakarta to Kampung Melayu, East Jakarta; Corridor I, which runs from Kota, North Jakarta to Blok M, South Jakarta; and Corridor IX, stretching from Pluit, North Jakarta to Pinang Ranti, East Jakarta.

Transjakarta, modeled after Bogota's TransMilenio bus rapid system in Colombia, was launched by the Jakarta administration in 2004, in a bid to ease traffic congestion in the city.

As of September, the BLU operated 11 Transjakarta corridors that enable passengers to travel to several areas in five municipalities in the capital region. The city administration plans to open up to 15 corridors.

Currently, Transjakarta has one of the longest bus rapid transit routes in the world, with a network spanning a total of 184.31 kilometers, and operates a fleet of 520 buses. Every day, around 350,000 people rely on Transjakarta to commute in the capital city. (riz/swd)