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ity-owned bus operator PT Transportasi Jakarta (Transjakarta) is considering cooperating with individuals who own Metromini medium-sized buses as the buses'€™ umbrella company is still in dispute.

While other bus operators operate under one legal entity, Metromini buses have long been divided into several groups, which hampers plans to integrate them with Transjakarta.

Transjakarta president director Budi Kaliwono said Thursday that despite the ongoing internal dispute at PT Metro Mini, his company would keep trying to put the buses under its management.

'€œAs many as 40 owners of Metromini buses met with us today to talk about the cooperation,'€ Budi told reporters at City Hall.

Budi said that he and the city administration were now trying to figure out cooperation schemes with the individual owners of the buses.

'€œI hope we can finalize the cooperation scheme within three months,'€ he said.

The company will also gradually replace rickety Metromini buses with new ones, he said. '€œWe will have 500 new buses in May,'€ he said.

For years, Metromini has built up a reputation for having reckless drivers and vehicles that are no longer roadworthy. According to the Organization of Land Transportation Owners (Organda), only 10 percent of the 1,600 Metromini buses that operate in the capital are in good condition.

Support for integrating Metromini with Transjakarta intensified after a Jakarta Transportation Agency crackdown on non-roadworthy buses that contributed significantly to traffic accidents.

Budi said the transportation agency would also revamp the bus routes. '€œHowever, I think changes will be insignificant because Metromini serves high-demand routes,'€ he said.

Budi said that like bus companies Kopaja and Mayasari Bakti that had joined Transjakarta, the owners of Metromini should also undergo the same procedures.

'€œTheir services should be listed with the Government Procurement Regulatory Body [LKPP],'€ he said.

Each entry, he suggested, should include the specifications of the operator'€™s buses and the rupiah-per-kilometer tariff for each bus.

Jakarta Governor Basuki '€œAhok'€ Tjahaja Purnama said that since individuals were not allowed to list their services with the LKPP, the city administration would try to find other schemes.

Ahok said that those owners could form a cooperative, so they could be listed under one legal entity.

PT Metro Mini president director Nofrialdi said that he did not mind if the bus owners preferred to directly cooperate with Transjakarta.

'€œOur buses are not compatible anymore. The city requires minimum 9-meter long buses. The city will help us to figure out how individuals can sign up with the LKPP and what kind of specs we need to meet,'€ said the director who also owns a number of buses.

The transportation agency recently revealed that 124 routes serviced by full-size buses were set to be discontinued as their operators had agreed to join with Transjakarta.

The routes to be discontinued include Mayasari Bakti'€™s Route 03 from Tanjung Priok in North Jakarta to Kalideres in West Jakarta, Steady Safe 921 from Blok M in South Jakarta to Kampung Melayu in East Jakarta and Steady Safe 948 from Tanjung Priok to Kampung Melayu.

'€”JP/Corry Elyda