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n a bid to improve service and efficiency of the Transjakarta bus system, the city administration is preparing for a direct bidding process to operate Transjakarta corridors, which is favorable to existing operators.

Jakarta Transportation Agency head Muhammad Akbar said on Wednesday that the city was drafting a gubernatorial decree that would allow a direct bidding process to apportion Transjakarta corridors to operators. The procedure, however, will involve an assessment process.

'€œExisting operators are those who own the rights to routes, which have been scrapped for Transjakarta. In the decree, bus operators can work together with rights owners [by establishing a consortium] and join the bidding process,'€ he said.

Akbar said an assessment would be conducted to determine a consortium'€™s capability. To ensure that the operators will meet standard service, the city will involve another operator in each corridor.

'€œThere will be two operators for each corridor. The existing operator and an operator we appoint through a bidding process,'€ he said.

The new contract will also obligate operators to replace old buses with new ones.

City-owned firm PT Transjakarta will pay the operators between Rp 13,000 (US$1.11) to Rp 20,000 for each kilometer that they serve.

'€œThe contracts will be different for different operators. Starting last year we set standards for bus drivers'€™ salaries,'€ Akbar said.

To ensure that the bidding process will be fair, Deputy Governor Basuki '€œAhok'€ Tjahaja Purnama said that the operators should comply with the lowest bidding value.

'€œTo ensure their performance we will set service standards. We will install GPS so we can monitor their operation. PT Transjakarta will handle it,'€ Ahok said.

The deputy governor warned that the city could also scrap their right to operate the bus corridors.

Previously, the city'€™s decision to tender the rights to Transjakarta routes had been challenged by existing operators.

Four operators, PT Trans Batavia, PT Jakarta Trans Metropolitan, PT Jakarta Mega Trans and PT Trans Mayapada Busway, have criticized the city for putting out to tender the seven corridors that they had run since 2003.

The operators argue that the tender does not have a solid legal basis because it was carried out based on Gubernatorial Decree No. 173/2010 on tendering for Transjakarta buses and operations.

They claim the decree goes against articles of Law No. 22/2009, which state that tenders must be regulated by a transportation ministerial decree.

The existing operators also demanded their rights to operate the routes were upheld, as they won them by giving up their routes for Transjakarta. The deal was made during former governor Sutiyoso'€™s tenure.

Indonesia Transportation Society (MTI) member Rudy Thehamihardja said that the draft gubernatorial decree was a win-win solution for the city administration and the existing operators.

'€œOperators were reluctant to replace aging buses without insurance that they would continue operating the corridors. The city, on the other side, should set a doable minimum service standard. For example, instead of setting out headway at seven minutes, the city should just set it at 15 minutes because we don'€™t have adequate numbers of buses yet,'€ he said.

'€œNew buses now have the same color, meaning that they can be easily used to serve different routes when necessary,'€ he added.