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Bangkok has one. So does New Delhi. Even Manila has a light rail system and Mexico City is building one, too. So why doesn’t Jakarta, a Group of 20 nation and emerging global player, have a mass rapid transit (MRT) system?

With a population of 12 million residents and day workers, as well as abominable traffic problems, the city still is hobbling along with what experts call “traditional” forms of public transportation: buses, commuter trains, public minivans, swarms of motorcycle taxis and other small vehicles.

Preparations are under way for the construction of an MRT system that will run both above and below ground. Public financing appears to be in place and if all goes well, Jakarta could join other big cities in finally developing a coherent approach to transportation.

It can’t happen soon enough, with the city in dire need of change. Experts estimate that traffic in Greater Jakarta causes economic losses of about $1 billion per year, nearly the price to build a new MRT system. They also say that total gridlock is possible by 2014 if nothing is done.

Past Stumbles

An attempt was made in 2004 to build a privately owned and operated monorail — it was limited in scope, but at least it was something. But when the financing failed to materialize it ground to a halt and the venture is now mired in a conflict between the city and the private company behind the proposal. The dormant pillars left behind in Central Jakarta are lasting monuments to its failure.

Sutanto Soehodo, a Jakarta deputy governor on transportation issues, said the idea of building an MRT system has been under discussion for the past 25 years. In the early 1990s, he said, the Jakarta administration and stakeholders such as the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology and the Ministry of Transportation included an MRT system as a future planning priority.

But once central government officials were told about the estimated cost, enthusiasm faded quickly.

“It was considered too expensive and the return would have been too small, because it was a public service obligation,” Sutanto said.

The central government tried to find foreign loans at the time, Sutanto said, but donors considered the cost for a subway system or skytrain to be too high.

Even worse, transportation experts suspected that something sinister was behind the country’s inability to secure loans. “This country is a huge market for automotive producers, like Japan. So, I’m guessing they have been reluctant to give us loans to build an MRT system because they don’t want to lose the market,” Sutanto said.

Milatia Kusuma Mu’min, country director of the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy, said the country has long been a dumping ground for vehicle producers. “The Dutch colonial [administration] did good by establishing a rail-based transportation system in Jakarta and other major cities,” Milatia said. “But then as the Indonesian government looked for infrastructure grants in the 1970s, the system was turned into a road-based one, as requested by rich countries who gave the loans.”

A number of railroads were paved over, she said, and there hasn’t been much development or many improvements to rail infrastructure for decades.

Demand for more effective and efficient public transportation has increased over the past several years, however, prompting both the central and Jakarta governments to start thinking more seriously about what to do.

“However, there have only been piecemeal projects and studies. Only five years ago, a master plan was made,” said Bambang Susantono, deputy minister for infrastructure and regional development at the Office of the Coordinating Minister for the Economy.

“It’s not just a financial problem — it also has to do with the absence of political will. The economic losses [from traffic] are intangible, so the transportation issue does not become a priority,” said Bambang, who is also the chairman of the Indonesian Transportation Society.

Better Late Than Never?

With respect to the analogy about closing the barn door after the horses escape, the current Jakarta administration finally seems determined to begin construction of an MRT system, going both above and below ground, in 2011, with plans to have it operational by 2016.

M Akbar, head of road traffic engineering at the Jakarta Transportation Agency, said the MRT system would be based on the Macro Transportation Pattern plan, which was first created in 1994.

“It is a set of strategic guidelines to improve public transportation, restrict private vehicles and build roads,” Akbar said.

The Japan International Cooperation Agency, which released a baseline study on an Integrated Transportation Master Plan (SITRAMP) in 2004, has also provided loans for the MRT project.

Negotiations, however, have been tough and became deadlocked in 2007, due to the absence of laws authorizing the construction of an MRT system and because the Japanese government wanted 75 percent of construction materials and components for the project to come from Japan.

The problems were finally resolved last year, enabling the Jakarta administration to set up PT Mass Rapid Transit Jakarta, a city-owned company that will oversee the planning, development and operation of the MRT system.

Eddi Santosa, corporate planning director at MRT Jakarta, said that JICA has agreed to provide about 120 billion yen ($1.3 billion) in loans, to be disbursed in four phases between 2008 and 2014. The loans have only 0.2 percent interest, with a 10-year grace period for payments and a 30-year payback timetable. “The central and Jakarta governments will share the burden of paying back the loans,” Eddi said.

The agreement requires that 35 percent of construction materials be imported from Japan. The majority of consultants and 51 percent of the contractors also must be Japanese.

Aside from the loans, financing for the MRT system will also come from the central government and the Jakarta administration. The state will put up $260 million and the city will pitch in Rp 1.5 trillion (about $159 million).

Despite public skepticism, the project is already in the preparation and design phase, the latter of which is being handled by the Ministry of Transportation.

“Basic design [planning] will start [this month], and by 2011 or earlier, the construction is projected to begin,” Eddi said. “The MRT system is scheduled to open in 2016.”

That will be the first phase, serving 12 stations along a 14.5km route from Lebak Bulus in South Jakarta to Dukuh Atas in Central Jakarta, just south of the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle. The first eight stations will be elevated on 10.5-kilometers of track, while the remaining four will be underground.

Each train will have six cars, arrive at stations every 5.5 minutes and carry about 350,000 passengers daily. Fares will range from Rp 4,000 to Rp 10,000 for a one-way trip.

“We’ve learned from the MRT in New Delhi, due to the similarity in urban planning, passenger density and its success,” Eddi said. “Their MRT runs on a 65km route and carries 900,000 passengers daily.”

A second phase, after the first is complete, would extend the track north to Kota Tua, and another line running east-west is planned for after that.

Building the MRT will create even more traffic as it is being built. But the city Transportation Agency’s Akbar said that the city government had anticipated this and planned to widen affected roads, such as Jalan Fatmawati and Jalan TB Simatupang in South Jakarta, beginning by the end of this year.

“We will also shift the traffic routes once construction begins, and operate a TransJakarta bus from Kebayoran Lama through Blok M and Sudirman, with hopes that people will transfer to this bus,” Akbar said, referring to the city’s busway system.

Eddi said MRT Jakarta had considered every possible technical issue and contingency, including anticipating floods, fires and earthquakes. The company is also studying a second line that would stretch from Dukuh Atas northward to Kota. No date has been set to begin that project.

While an MRT system will make Jakarta more livable, it will not magically make traffic vanish, just as it hasn’t in other major cities around the world.

“The MRT is not aimed at eliminating traffic jams, but it will increase mobility and improve the quality of life,” Eddi said. “It will not have a significant impact unless it is integrated with other modes of public transportation.”

Milatia from the ITDP said that the MRT system would connect to busway and commuter trains, as well short-distance transport “feeders,” such as taxis, bajajs and minivans. “The entire transportation system must be integrated and revitalized before the MRT operates,” she said.

What About the Monorail?

Now that it appears the MRT project may finally see the light of day, questions still remain about the aborted monorail system, whose abandoned pillars are eyesores along roads in areas such as Senayan and Kuningan.

Sutanto, the deputy governor, said the monorail project was only given a passing mention in the Macro Transportation Pattern plan, due to overlapping routes with the MRT system and the fact that monorails by definition function more as status symbols for cities rather than serious transport solutions.

“In 2004, a privately financed initiative offered to develop it and only asked for the concession. The Jakarta administration at that time welcomed the initiative because it was in the public interest,” Sutanto said, referring to former Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso.

In return, the operator would have received a minimum revenue guarantee, meaning that if passenger numbers were under 16,000 people per day, the central and Jakarta governments would have subsidized the difference.

But the company, PT Jakarta Monorail, failed to secure financing from Dubai Islamic Bank, and after building the pillars, it officially abandoned the project in March 2008 due to legal and financial problems. The project is now being audited by the State Development Finance Comptroller to determine how much the city government will reimburse the company. The company is asking for $60 million to cover its losses, but the state auditing agency says it should only receive one-third of that amount.

Jakarta Monorail’s president director, Sukmawati Syukur, denied that the company failed to secure financing, and instead blamed the Jakarta administration for failing to purchase private land to clear space for construction.

“We’d already signed an agreement with Dubai Islamic Bank. But the city government failed to meet its obligation, which was to clear the land, so the bank refused to disburse the funds,” said Sukmawati, a relative of former Vice President Jusuf Kalla.

The city government, she said, also incorrectly referred to Presidential Decree No. 67/2005 on public-private partnerships, which requires tendered bids. “But we proposed the initiative in 2004, so [the decree] did not count,” Sukmawati said.

She said the Jakarta administration had agreed when the contract was signed in 2004 to reimburse Jakarta Monorail if the project was not completed.

The administration denies that there ever was a reimbursement agreement, but Sutanto said the city government was trying to show goodwill by compensating some of the company’s loss. “The monorail route was along roads that did not require the clearing of land.

The pillars were erected, so there were no issues related to the clearing of land,” he said, angrily. “We have given a shortfall ridership guarantee and we don’t have any legal obligations because the project was started under their initiative. We don’t even have to pay anything, but we still offered to settle the problem and continue the development. Just show some respect and don’t ask for such a large amount of money.”

If the two sides eventually do reach a settlement, Sutanto said, the city will retender the project so the monorail line can still be built.

The plan is for the monorail to connect major shopping centers and buildings in Kuningan and Senayan. It would not serve commuters.

The case appears set to go before the National Arbitration Agency. Hopefully, the more ambitious MRT system won’t face similar headaches.