Ministry Of Transportation Wants To Build 2,000 Km Of Bus Transportation In 5 Cities, MTI Says There Will Be Challenges

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Transportation plans to build a 2,000-kilometer bus transportation network (km) in five metropolitan cities.

The Indonesian Transportation Society (MTI) assesses that there will be challenges in implementing this plan in the future, namely the launch of existing angkot operators.

The plan refers to the Indonesia Mass Transit Program (Mastran) which will build 2,000 km of bus transportation routes in five metropolitan urban areas. Where the target is to serve 34 million residents in Medan, Bandung, Semarang, Surabaya, and Makassar.

Chairman of MTI Tory Damantoro said the rejection of the existing angkot operator would be a challenge for the plan.

In fact, he predicts that it could cause conflict during the implementation of the bus transportation.

Therefore, Tory said, the Ministry of Transportation must involve Land Transport Organizations (Organda) to carry out existing angkot reforms.

The main obstacle of this program is the rejection of existing angkot operators. For this reason, MTI urges the Ministry of Transportation to cooperate with Organda to immediately carry out existing angkot reforms by taking learning and best practices from several regions," he said in the 2023 MTI Year End Note, in Jakarta, Wednesday, December 27.

Tory asked the government to complete the development of the bus transportation route by monitoring and evaluating and supported by good data.

"MTI reminds that this program must be equipped with monitoring and evaluation and supported by a good data system so that the Ministry of Transportation can monitor continuously and have improved performance," he said.

In general, Tory appreciated the government's plan.

He considered that this could provide mass transportation services that were evenly distributed in cities in Indonesia.

"This is important, because of what? This Mastrans program will later be encouraging, so infrastructure enters, operations enter, financing entry, institutions and regulations as well. This is what MTI has been waiting for, not only in Jakarta but in Indonesia," he said.