Ancient Tram Rails Found In Jakarta Is The Oldest MRT Project By The Dutch

JAKARTA - Under bright sunlight and very clear clouds, in the middle of downtown Jakarta, you can see a number of Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) project workers working to clean and secure the findings of an ancient Dutch colonial heritage tram rail structure in the MRT Jakarta project area phase two or to be precise in the CP202 Harmoni to Mangga Besar project.

When entering an area closed by a zinc fence, a person must wear complete personal protective equipment (PPE). Inside, several workers were seen wearing complete PPE, starting from boots, vests, and also helmets.

The workers were divided into three groups. The first group is in charge of carrying out the first stripping in the form of a layer of concrete and asphalt with heavy equipment or a mini excavator.

The workers used heavy equipment in this first stripping process until they saw the old tram rails.

Next, group workers will remove the concrete and asphalt layers manually using hammers, hammers, crowbars, hoes, and other tools.

This manual stripping was done so that the ancient tram rails could be saved and to open all the ancient tram rail structures from the piles of rocks and asphalt that covered them.

Another group of workers will clean up the structure of the tram tracks in more detail using equipment adapted to the type of demolition.

The workers try to make the ancient tram tracks clean of asphalt and piles of soil that dry hard on the tracks. Cleaning is carried out in great detail so as to produce clear and clean tram rails.

The construction of the ancient tram rails contained teak sleepers to strengthen the position of the rails. Rail rods made of steel, earthing, or grounding which function to continue shorting currents underground to prevent short circuits and fires with a distance of every four pads or every one meter.

In addition, there is a bolt that looks like a hat with a rim that functions to clamp the bottom of the rail rod so that the bearing does not move.

After that, there is the name of the railroad structure, both train and tram rails, there is a foundation. The foundation of one of them contains small rocks called ballast or cobblestones.

It can be seen that the tram rail sleepers are made of teak wood, still sturdy, and have not experienced weathering.

These tram rails come from Germany made in the bochum factory. Cutting of the rails is not allowed, so structurally the tram rails are 12 meters long, 12 meters on the left side, and 12 meters on the right side.

It is known that along the lines of the three stations, PT MRT found a tram rail structure that had existed since 1869. Archaeologist from the University of Indonesia Charunia Arni Lisa said the tram rails were the oldest in Asia.

"This tramway is the first in Asia and the oldest in Indonesia," said Charunia Arni Lisa during an interview at the Harmoni MRT project site, Central Jakarta, reported by ANTARA, Wednesday, November 16.

In 1869, there was still a horse tramway with two or three carriages pulled by two or four horses. With such a heavy load, around 200 horses died so the Europeans protested to remove the tram tracks with horses. Apart from that, the face of the city also looks unclean because dirt is found scattered on the streets and Europeans feel uncomfortable in one carriage mixing with people who are considered below their class.

After that, the thought arose of using steam power which was more humane and less bulky, in their terms "killing the horses". Then the steam tramway was put into use in 1889, the locomotive was imported from Germany then the carriages from Belgium and the Netherlands.

The locomotive uses a steam boiler filled with high-pressure steam at each steam depot. But the weakness when charging is frequent explosions. Finally, the Dutch government at that time thought of replacing the steam tram rails with electric tram rails, but not in all areas.

"So what we see now is the remains of electric tram rails, not steam tram rails or horsepower tram rails," said Lisa.

When at the big south door, traces of horseshoes were found, from the early 19th century until now, so that it has been stored for about 300 years.

The ancient tram tracks made of steel from the Dutch heritage are clearly visible, starting from the Harmoni intersection to the people crossing the bridge (JPO) of the Harmoni Transjakarta bus stop. You can also see the money order for the transfer of the ancient tram tracks at the Harmoni intersection.

After the tram rails are removed, it is planned that they will be handed over to the Djakarta Passenger Transportation Public Company (Perum PPD) and stored temporarily at the PPD collection in the Jelambar area.

It is possible that the MRT will ask for a small portion to be displayed at the future Kota Station as a form of accountability to the public.

PT MRT Jakarta ensures that the old tram rails from the Dutch colonial era found in the CP202 construction area will be properly relocated. Thus the condition of the rail is maintained as it was when it was discovered.

The tram rails were found at a depth of 27 centimeters, with a total of approximately 118 rail spans or 1.4 kilometers long which will be relocated and properly preserved.