T

he Bandung administration has decided to cooperate with a private company to build a Rp 120 billion (US$8.8 million) cable car project without opening a tender process.

Mayor Ridwan Kamil argued that the project, which would be built by its initiator and developer PT Aditya Dharmaputra Persada, would not be tendered as it was a prototype.

'€œWe will have the auction only when we are sure about the system. Presently we are preparing for the mayoral decree,'€ said Ridwan on Thursday, responding to the legal basis for the project.

Providing an analogy, Ridwan said that the prototype was similar to the placing of parking meters by a Swedish company on Jl. Braga. '€œWe will learn about the system first,'€ he said.

He said that the prototype would be used to explore the cooperation system with the city administration, hoping that the developer would be able to build the project.

'€œThere will be bidding for a 40-kilometer track,'€ Ridwan said after a final meeting for the project, which will span the 850 meters from the Taman sari area to Jl. Cihampelas.

Ridwan added that the groundbreaking was scheduled for this year and it was expected the cable car would be in operation by 2016.

Meanwhile, PT Aditya Dharmaputra Persada President and CEO Sandjaya Susilo said that the cable pillars for the project would not be developed on private land.

Sandjaya said there would be two stations along the 850-meter-long track, on Jl. Ciung Wanara near the Bandung Institute of Technology campus and on Jl. Cihampelas in the tourist shopping area.

The track will pass over the Cikapundung River valley that separates the two streets. The track will be some 20 to 25 meters above the street, but 60 meters high when passing over the valley. It is projected to have a carrying capacity of up to 2,400 passengers per hour.

'€œA cabin can transport eight to 10 people, with an inter-cabin interval of 50 meters. This is for tourism purposes,'€ Sandjaya said.

The development of the cable car is not integrated with any public transportation in the city, which currently involves some 5,500 angkot (minivans) serving 38 routes.

Instead, the administration will develop a parking area with a 500-car capacity near Jl. Ciung Wanara on land belonging to the city-owned tap water company PDAM Tirtawening.

'€œIn Cihampelas the parking will be covered by the respective retail parking lots,'€ Ridwan said.

This cable car project is similar to the Bandung Skybridge project whose groundbreaking was conducted by then mayor Dada Rosada in 2012 on Jl. Pasteur. The project was halted due to a regulation on public transportation development passing through private property.

The same company was then the developer of the US$7 million project.

As with the skybridge project, PT Aditya Dharmaputra Persada is now also cooperating with Doppelmayr Garaventa Group from Austria in the cable car project.

'€œThey have 175 years of experience with a global market share of 75 percent,'€ Sandjaya said.

Sandjaya added that the price of tickets for the cable car was still being negotiated with the Bandung city administration.

Ridwan predicted that tickets would be above Rp 10,000 (US 70 cents dollar) per person, but said that they wanted tickets to be '€œas cheap as possible'€.