T

he light rail transit (LRT) megaproject is seeing brighter days with construction expected to start soon as the government has revised a regulation concerning the project, which aims to accommodate the 2018 Asian Games.

City-owned PT Jakarta Propertindo (Jakpro) is tendering the project’s railway construction for several state-owned and private developers.

“There are nine state-owned developers and six private developers proposing to undertake the LRT’s construction,” said Satya Heragandhi, Jakpro president director, to The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

He said Jakpro would unveil the tender winner on Oct. 18 and would start the project’s construction in November.

As reported earlier, the project has been hampered by a government regulation (PP), which formerly stipulated that the Jakarta administration had to appoint a state-owned enterprise to implement the LRT’s construction through a tender process.

However, the administration has planned for Jakpro and state-owned developer PT Adhi Karya to undertake the project without the tender process. To resolve the matter the government must first revise existing regulations.

Adhi Karya is among the nine state-owned developers that joined in the bidding.

PT Adhi Karya was likely to win the tender process, as stated earlier by Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama.

“The legal interpretation of the PP is that [Jakpro] cannot directly appoint PT Adhi Karya to carry out the LRT project, since the project winner should be decided through a tender process. If we revise this regulation, Adhi Karya can directly work on the construction project,” Ahok said in March.

Satya said for the first phase, the LRT developers would construct a 5.8-kilometer track along Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta, to the velodrome sports complex in Rawamangun, East Jakarta. The latter is now also under construction as the administration expects both the LRT and the sports complex to ready for the Asian Games.

“As we have said before, we are buckling down to finish the 5.8-kilometer route to accommodate the Asian Games,” he said, adding that Jakpro was more optimistic about the project’s completion after the regulation’s revision.

The Jakarta administration are expected to build 123.7 km of intra-city LRT lines, which will be integrated a 142-km LRT network to be built by the Transportation Ministry from the capital to other regions in West Java, like Karawang, Tegalluar and Walini.

However, in the initial phase, the administration has planned 83 km of LRT lines, serving nine corridors, with priority given to the Kelapa Gading-Velodrome route.

The routes that have been named as a priority will connect Asian Games venues, such as the velodrome, the Britama basketball arena at Kelapa Gading Sports Mall in North Jakarta and the athletes village in Kemayoran, Central Jakarta.

Satya said after the tender-winning developer commenced operation in November for the Kelapa Gading-Velodrome route, Jakpro would focus on the second phase of the construction in connecting Dukuh Atas in Central Jakarta to the velodrome.

“This route would span 14.8 kilometers, so the route’s total distance from Kelapa Gading to Dukuh Atas will be 21.6 kilometers,” he said.

The groundbreaking LRT project began in June, but Satya said the initial regulation hampered Jakpro to work on the track’s construction.

“From June to now, we could only work on the construction’s spadework, which includes soil testing and environmental impact analysis,” he said, adding that nearly 50 percent of the spadework’s November deadline had been completed. (adt)