Jakarta Governor Joko “Jokowi” Widodo said on Friday that he will
determine the fate of the city’s monorail project in January, pending a
detailed technical presentation from the bidder.
The governor
said that he still needed to hear the presentation from the potential
developer PT Jakarta Monorail (JM) on the construction of the project.
“I’m
giving [JM] until Jan. 15, so they can complete their study on the
monorail construction, including the financial, crossing and technical
aspects,” he said after meeting a representative from JM at City Hall.
As
soon as JM completed its presentation, Jokowi said he would immediately
determine his next step so the project could begin soon.
Jokowi
also said that JM was currently the only bidder on the project as
another bidder, state-owned construction firm PT Adhi Karya, did not
want to continue to be involved in the project.
“Adhi Karya is no
longer interested in it. But we’re still giving them the opportunity if
they want to do another monorail route,” he said.
Previously, two consortiums were interested in teaming up with the Jakarta administration on the monorail project.
One
of the consortiums is led by JM, which was responsible for the failed
monorail construction project that was started in 2005 and then halted
in March 2008 due to legal and financial problems.
JM’s
consortium is made up of a number of foreign and local construction
companies and financial institutions, though the firm claimed that most
of the consortium members had now changed, leaving only a fraction of
the original lineup.
The other consortium is led by state-owned
construction firm PT Adhi Karya, which is collaborating with state toll
road operator PT Jasa Marga, state electricity firm PT PLN, state-owned
PT Bank Mandiri, state train builder PT Inka, electronic components
maker PT LEN Industry and state-owned telecommunications firm PT Telkom.
Adhi Karya previously held a 7.5 percent stake in JM.
Adhi
Karya president director Kiswodarmawan said earlier that the company
had tried to work with JM in the past, but nothing came of the
cooperation, so they would not do it again.
Earlier this year,
Adhi Karya offered to build its own version of the monorail network, the
first phase of which was estimated to cost around Rp 12 trillion
(US$1.24 billion).
JM’s spokesperson Bavananto said that they
would immediately work on the presentation as requested by the governor,
especially its technical aspects. “We can’t use our initial design so
there will be some changes because of the city’s current condition,” he
said.
However, he said that the company would still use its
initial routes. The first route will connect Semanggi and Kuningan in
South Jakarta while the second route will link Kampung Melayu in East
Jakarta and Taman Anggrek shopping center in West Jakarta.
JM’s
initial construction work left rows of concrete columns along the roads
in Senayan, Central Jakarta, and Kuningan in South Jakarta.
Before
the plan to resurrect the monorail project surfaced, the previous
administration planned to use the abandoned columns for its elevated Bus
Rapid Transit project.