by Mathias Hariyadi

A $ 1.5 billion project capable of transporting 247 thousand people every day to and from the Indonesian capital . On paper for 25 years, work will now begin thanks to the initiative of the governor Joko Widodo . Today commuters take up to two hours to travel 20 km on the bus ; congested trains , passengers forced to climb on the roof.

Jakarta (AsiaNews) - After 25 years of waiting, stalls, referrals and the passing of the buck for the delays and lack of decisions, the monorail project, for daily commuters to Jakarta, has got a green light. A commute that, to date, implies hours of traffic and risks for the safety of travelers. From Ciledug in Tangerang regency , about 20 km away from the city center it can take up to two hours to complete the journey by bus, commuters are forced to get up at dawn to get to work on time . The most crowded time slots range from 5.30 am to 9.30; with the return flow in the evening , between 4:30 and 9. Coming from Bekasi , Bogor , Tangerang , Depok there is no alternative to the overcrowded train wagons, and many travelers prefer to sit on the open roof.

That's why many prefer scooters and motorcycles, thus creating the effect of a human tsunami that every morning invades the center of the capital , and every evening returns home. A common practice, as stated in the popular anecdote according to which "you age every day from 3 to 4 hours in traffic" in an attempt to cover the distance that "separates home from the office ." And so the traffic is still one of the major problems in Jakarta and the entire urban area , inhabited by over 15 million people .

Hence the idea of ​​making the fast train, able to absorb some of the traffic that now moves by road, but for a quarter of a century has remained buried beneath bureaucracy and a passing of the buck between investors and authorities in Jakarta . Today, however, the intervention of the governor Joko Widodo seems to have unlocked the situation and the fast train monorail project could be a reality by 2017.

At first it seemed that five years ago the former Governor Fauzi Bowo had obtained the go ahead of the project only for it to be "frozen" after a while with no particular explanation , which is proved by the vision of poles planted in the ground and some trees cut down to make room for them but nothing more than that. The new phase kicks off this month, for a total of 15 km along the commercial district of Jakarta and will cause some other problems to traffic already on the edge of collapse. At the forefront of the implementation of the Monorail fast train are two Chinese companies, the Chinese Changcun Railway Vehicles and the China Communications Construction Company , in collaboration with German , Indonesian , Thai and Singapore companies for a total cost ( 2007 estimates ) of 1, $ 5 billion and capable of carrying 247 thousands commuters a day.

 

 

• indoneisa
• jakarat
• monorail
• project
• traffic