H

eavier congestion is expected to hit South Jakarta as the construction of an elevated section of the system MRT will start from Jl. Fatmawati to the Blok M intersection on Thursday.

Project operator PT MRT Jakarta revealed that the construction would take up almost half of the congested street and suggested that road users take alternative routes.

PT MRT Jakarta project manager Heru Nugroho said the width of the street would be reduced by eight meters from the existing 18 m to make way for heavy equipment.

'€œWe need eight meters as we will place our equipment to set the foundations,'€ Heru told reporters in Lebak Bulus, South Jakarta, on Monday.

As a result, road users on Jl. Fatmawati will have access to three lanes from the previous six.

According to Heru, the first phase of the construction will be carried out on a 400-m section of road starting from Jl. Cilandak 5 to the intersection on Jl. Madrasah. The first phase is expected to be completed in five months before construction continues in the next area.

'€œWe'€™re still optimistic the MRT can be completely finished in 2018,'€ he said.

The MRT will connect Lebak Bulus in South Jakarta to the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle in Central Jakarta. It will have above ground and underground stations and will look to serve 173,000 passengers per day.

MRT Jakarta operational director M. Nasyir said alternative roads that could be taken were Jl. Antasari, located on the west side of Jl. Fatmawati, and Jl. Radio Dalam on the east side.

'€œWe will also put signs on the streets before Jl. Fatmawati to inform people of the ongoing construction, so they can shift to other routes,'€ Nasyir said.

He added that the MRT would be able to carry 1,500 passengers per trip when it started in 2018, and said it would effectively reduce congestion in the capital.

The MRT project was supposed to be completed in 2016. The head of the Jakarta governor'€™s team for development acceleration, Sarwo Handayani, said recently that negotiations with land owners on Jl. Fatmawati for the construction of Haji Nawi station had proved difficult and could delay the construction of the MRT there.

Transportation Agency traffic management engineering head Masdes Arrofi said road users should anticipate changes on Jl. Fatmawati an Jl. Panglima Polim Raya.

'€œThere will be some parts of the streets with two lanes on the right and one lane on the left, and other parts will have two lanes on the left and one lane on the right,'€ he said.

Besides the construction of the elevated section of the MRT, there are a number of ongoing construction projects in South Jakarta, such as overpasses at the Permata Hijau and Kuningan intersection.

The municipality is also overseeing a bigger project of an elevated highway from Jl. Tendean to Jl. Ciledug Raya.

'€œResidents of South Jakarta should consider finding alternative routes due to a number of large projects,'€ Masdes said.