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Jakarta Post

City urged to determine fate of monorail project

PT Jakarta Monorail (JM) has called on the city administration to decide whether to go ahead with the stalling monorail project, as it claims to have fulfilled all its requirements for the project

Corry Elyda (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Mon, May 26, 2014 Published on May. 26, 2014 Published on 2014-05-26T09:12:07+07:00

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T Jakarta Monorail (JM) has called on the city administration to decide whether to go ahead with the stalling monorail project, as it claims to have fulfilled all its requirements for the project.

JM president director John Aryananda said on the sidelines of a discussion about the project in Jakarta on Saturday that his partners in the private consortium, including the China Communications Construction Corporation Ltd. (CCCC), were upset with the city administration as it has yet to sign a cooperation agreement, which was expected to give them a green light to continue the project.

'€œThe company has complained about the absence of investment certainty in the country to the Investment Coordinating Board [BPKM] and to the Indonesian Embassy in China,'€ he said.

John said the consortium wanted the city administration to decide immediately about whether to continue the project and whether to sign the cooperation agreement, so that the company could continue the project until its completion.

'€œIf it [the city administration] wants, we will continue the project. If it decides to suspend it, [the administration should] just state it clearly, so we can find other projects,'€ he said.

John said, however, that JM would not set any deadline for signing the contract.

'€œWe are already involved in the project. We will wait until the decision is made,'€ he said.

He admitted he was disappointed with Deputy Governor Basuki '€œAhok'€ Tjahaja Purnama, who he said was politicizing the project.

Governor Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo, who led a ceremony to launch the project in October, 2013, suspended signing the cooperation agreement as the private consortium had yet to fulfill requirements, including those regarding its financial ability and business plan. Jokowi threatened to revoke the construction permit that the company secured from former governor Fauzi Bowo in 2004 if the consortium failed to meet the deadline of March 2014.

Separately, Ahok said the city administration would suspend the project and would not sign the cooperation agreement as it was still wary of the company'€™s financial ability and business plan.

'€œAlthough I will become acting governor as of June 1, 2014, I will not sign the cooperation agreement,'€ he said at City Hall on Friday.

According to Ahok, the city administration was aiming to avoid making careless decisions on the matter. He said such a standpoint was needed to ensure the project'€™s continuity and to avoid negative repercussions.

John previously said the city administration, despite earlier deciding to cooperate with Jakarta Monorail, was now making halting the project in the interests of politics.

JM management recently asked the city administration to allow the company to establish commercial areas in all stations in order to generate income, as it fears difficulty in making profits from ticket sales. However, the city administration turned down the proposal.

'€œSince early on, we have proposed the 200-hectare commercial areas in stations and depos,'€ John said.

He added that the old and new contracts stated that the private firm was entitled to seek revenue from other business, such as advertisements, information technology (IT) infrastructure, as well as property.

He said that without the commercial areas, the mass transportation business would not generate sufficient revenue for the company and, therefore, would be deemed unfeasible.

The consortium has proposed two monorail lines: a green line, with 16 stations, extending 14.3 kilometers from the city police headquarters to Satria Mandala Museum, both in South Jakarta; and a blue line stretching 13.7 km from Kampung Melayu in East Jakarta to Grogol in West Jakarta, with 14 stations. The project is expected to be completed by 2018.

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