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End of the Line for Jakarta's Monorail Mess
Dofa Fasila | September 20, 2011

Foundations for the construction of the monorail network create an unsightly scene on Jl. HR Rasuna Said, Jakarta. The monorail development has been suspended for several years, leaving the foundations to rust. The project has now finally been scrapped. (JG Photo/Afriadi Hikmal) Foundations for the construction of the monorail network create an unsightly scene on Jl. HR Rasuna Said, Jakarta. The monorail development has been suspended for several years, leaving the foundations to rust. The project has now finally been scrapped. (JG Photo/Afriadi Hikmal)
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blightyboy
7:39am Sep 22, 2011

CaliTim - Have to agree with you. The elite have gained so much control under this President, that they have infected everything, and ultimately the Law.

Just today there are the pathetic sentences in the first of the SEA Games cases.

The elite of Indonesia are able to get away with anything, and do get away with anything, while the poor are mercilessly victimized and abused. What has SBY's government achieved, they hardly even bother to turn up for work.

The result of the massive and continuing and growing theft of the nations assets is all around, the country is a failed state all but in name. Everything ultimately fails because of theft by the elite class. This current President, has duplicated and handed out the key to the countries coffers to every one of his own class, and while, this is the funny bit, claiming to be fighting corruption and graft.

The biggest con trick in the history of the World, is to have gotten the people of Indonesia to believe that they no-longer live under authoritarian rule, and now have democracy. The elite have put a puppet in charge so that they can continue their crimes unmolested.

With the rule of law completely neutralized and corrupted, as is has been, CaliTim is right, only popular revolution can get back control.

suebonnington
12:31am Sep 22, 2011

I have a question... How can it possibly cost Rp 600 billion to half build a couple of dozen concrete pillars?

I may have this wrong, and please don't take me to court and put me in prison if I have, but isn't Indonesia Transit Central (55% owner of Jakarta Monorail) owned by the ex Vice Pres?

When public officials are barred from doing business with the state we might, just might, see some progress.


tempodulu
3:50pm Sep 21, 2011

Anyone to be held responsible for this farce? Nope, I thought not.

DrDez
1:15pm Sep 21, 2011

Mike

I think we are all agreed - but will it change?? hope

quas - these little things are all adding up to prove that there needs to be a relocation of the capital... said a minister today Sit back and think and yep I think mama might be spot on

MikeOfAston
11:44am Sep 21, 2011

DrDez - "It is said people get the leaders they deserve...". Absolutely! People who are more concerned with what the "celebrities" do and don't do as spewed by round-the-clock TV gossip slots, rather than in-depth understanding of the country's shortcomings and their solutions. People who are mired in self-admiration and self-righteousness that they could not constructively acknowledge many of their regional neighbours have long outstripped them in economic prosperity and quality of life.

After seven years and hundreds of billions of rupiah in public money, Jakarta on Monday finally pulled the plug on the city’s abortive monorail project.

Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo said the often acrimonious relationship with the monorail’s developer was now over.

“I really want there to be clarity in this monorail case, so we are ending our agreement with Jakarta Monorail because we cannot pay the Rp 600 billion [$68 million] investment that it demands to be reimbursed,” Fauzi said.

Jakarta Monorail, a consortium of Indonesian and foreign firms, was in charge of the project that had been in limbo since 2004, following difficulties in finding funding for the scheme.

If completed, the monorail would have had two lines. One 14.3-kilometer loop serving Jakarta’s business districts and one 13.5 km line from Kampung Melayu to Roxy via Casablanca and Tanah Abang. There were to have been interchange stations at Casablanca and Karet linking the lines.

Jakarta Monorail has since 2007 demanded the Rp 600 billion in reparation for work it completed. Scores of now-rusting and graffiti-covered pillars were partially built in 2004 in the Senayan and Kuningan areas.

Fauzi said that lawyers and city legal officials would soon issue a new agreement to replace the old one. The Development and Finance Audit Board (BPKP) has recommended that the authorities pay a lesser amount in compensation to Jakarta Monorail, he added. “I will abide by the BPKP recommendation that sets the maximum at Rp 204 billion.”

Fauzi said that Jakarta only wanted public transportation that was cost-efficient, and with the monorail project scrapped, it would seek an alternative system of mass public transportation that would have a larger capacity and a lower construction cost.

He did not elaborate, but Jakarta has for years planned a separate mass rapid transit railway, partially elevated and partially underground. Construction of the first phase, a 20 km north-south line, is due to start early next year and be operational in 2016. A second phase, a much longer east-west line, will follow.

Meanwhile, officials have said that they were mulling finishing the monorail pillars and using them to support a flyover instead.

The original monorail project was halted largely because of difficulties in finding investors. The Dubai Islamic Bank initially showed interest in the project, but sought guarantees in case the monorail fell short of its goal of 160,000 passengers per day, which some observers saw as too ambitious. The Jakarta authorities had floated a figure of 120,000.

The plan was later scrapped because, at the time, Indonesia lacked the legal tools needed to arrange investments that complied with Shariah law.

Jakarta took over the project from Jakarta Monorail after the firm failed to secure financing, but left unresolved a dispute with the company over compensation for investments it had already made.