F

ollowing a recent incident in which a Transjakarta bus caught fire, city-owned bus operator PT Transjakarta has decided to ground a total of 60 buses, half of which are manufactured by Chinese Zhong Tong and another half by Yutong, also China-based.

A Zhong Tong Corridor 9 Transjakarta bus caught fire last weekend near Pancoran in South Jakarta while traveling from Pluit in North Jakarta to Pinang Ranti in East Jakarta. The fire claimed no lives.

Transjakarta president director Steve Kosasih said that the firm had decided to ground the Zhong Tong and Yutong buses for the safety of passengers. Last year, a Corridor 1 Yutong bus caught fire in Sisingamangaraja in South Jakarta while traveling from Kota Tua in West Jakarta to Blok M in South Jakarta.

'€œThirty Zhong Tong and 30 Yutong buses have been grounded until the bus manufacturers can guarantee the safety of their buses,'€ Kosasih told reporters at City Hall in Central Jakarta on Monday.

Kosasih went on that although Corridor 9 would be disrupted, his company was not willing to take risks and that the manufacturers must guarantee the safety of their buses. Kosasih also apologized to passengers for any inconvenience caused.

'€œWe apologize for the inconvenience [...] however, we are not willing to take risks and see another accident occur,'€ he insisted.

Kosasih went on to say that night buses, locally known as amari, would substitute the Zhong Tong and Yutong buses. Currently, Transjakarta operates 55 single buses at night-time.

'€œWe will use at least 30 amari buses as substitutes for the grounded buses in Corridor 9 [...] we will operate the Zhong Tong and Yutong buses once the manufacturers give us a written guarantee that their buses are safe for operation,'€ he said.

Previously, Transjakarta head of general affairs and human resources Sri Kuncoro revealed that there were currently a total of 823 units of buses. However, only about 400 units are deemed fit for operation while the rest are parked unattended in a bus pool.

Furthermore, he said that of the 406 operational buses, up to 120 buses would experience technical problems each day, whether major or minor. '€œWhich means that only 280 buses are operational each day,'€ he said.

Governor Basuki '€œAhok'€ Tjahaja Purnama has said that the city is planning to procure a total of 51 articulated buses. Roughly 20 buses are set to arrive in June and will ply Corridor 1.

On Friday, a panel of judges at the Corruption Court in South Jakarta sentenced Drajat Adhyaksa, former secretary at the Transportation Agency, to five years in prison after the court found him guilty of corruption related to the procurement of Transjakarta buses from a China-based manufacturer.

On the same day and in the same case, the court sentenced Setyo Tuhu, the head of the bus procurement division, to four years in prison.