Bandung Under Ridwan Kamil The Champion Of The Development Masterplan, Is It Realization? Not Necessarily

JAKARTA - Not long ago the Governor of West Java, Ridwan Kamil, criticized motorcycle users who recklessly crossed the sidewalk. But netizens criticized the former mayor of Bandung regarding the construction of public transportation facilities in the capital city of West Java. They questioned the governor's promises that have not been realized.

As we know, Ridwan Kamil, who is often called Kang Emil, is indeed an architect who has classy works. His expertise in the world of design is unquestionable even at the international level.

Since becoming the Mayor of Bandung, Kang Emil has been diligent in uploading the master plan for the construction of buildings, parks, and public transportation facilities on his social media accounts. Provide an overview and hope of how the future of Bandung with comfortable and modern public vehicles. But have all development plans, especially mass transportation facilities, been realized?

A little nostalgia four years ago. On March 22, 2017, Kang Emil proudly displayed the Metro Kapsul LRT master plan. This LRT development plan is predicted as a solution to unravel the traffic jam in the Flower City. He also mentioned that 90 percent of local content and 50 percent will be done by the nation's children, which is more budget efficient.

At that time, the groundbreaking was planned to be carried out in May 2017 and targeted for completion in 2018. The Metro Capsule LRT is planned to have a length of 6 km which was built in two stages. However, according to Kang Emil, development has obstacles so that it must face President Joko Widodo directly.

The construction was then postponed and promised to start in August 2017. However, the construction of the project has yet to materialize due to administrative problems.

Over time, ground breaking did not occur. In August 2018, Ridwan Kamil finally said that the Bandung City Government targeted the groundbreaking of the Metro Capsule LRT in September 2018. This was conveyed by Ridwan Kamil after holding a meeting with the Ministry of Transportation in Jakarta.

"They are trying at the end of September for groundbreaking for phase I. Yesterday I soft launched it (corridor 3). So construction can start," said Ridwan Kamil, quoting Merdeka.

According to him, the Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs Luhut Binsar Panjaitan was also present at the meeting. Through the meeting, said Emil, there was an acceleration for the construction of the Metro Capsule in Bandung City after it was launched in February 2018.

Kang Emil admitted that the issue of funds was one of the obstacles that made the realization of the Metro Capsule development run so slowly. "(The constraint to the construction of the LRT) is money. The issue is always the cost. That's why Palembang is running because it has been given 100 percent of the state budget, right. So the problem is not in knowledge, but in money," he added.

However, Ridwan Kamil at that time revealed that while waiting for the construction to start, his party had completed all the requirements. Including Detail Engineering Design (DED).

"The (requirements) are already there. It's possible that the metro capsule is 50 percent cheaper. The Palembang one is Rp 400 billion per km, the metro capsule is only Rp 200 billion per km," he said.

In March 2019, the Bandung City Government said that it would review the Metro Capsule LRT project. The study is to determine whether the project is likely to be continued or not. It was explained that there were several things that were highlighted to be followed up through an in-depth study.

"Right now we want to see what the progress is like. It turns out that I see that there is still a long way to go because from the proposal submitted, we ask for cooperation with PD Pasar because based on the route or route to be traversed it involves several city government assets that have become capital investments and become an asset for PD Pasar," said the then acting secretary of the Bandung City, Ema Sumarna, citing Republika.

On this occasion, Ema also admitted that the time for the Metro Capsule LRT project had yet to be determined. As it turns out, so far nothing has been decided.

The construction of the Metro Cable LRT coincides with the planned Cable Car construction. The project, which has been anticipated since 2015, is planned to be groundbreaking in August 2017.

The first route that will be carried out by the construction team is the Dark Nyawang route to Cihampelas. Part of the construction will be integrated with the Cihampelas Terrace. Ridwan Kamil explained that this project is estimated to cost Rp 200 billion and will be funded by PT Aditya Dharmaputra Persada.

Just like the Metro Kapsul LRT, the ground breaking of the Bandung Cable Car continues to be postponed. The construction of the cable car has been delayed due to administrative problems that continue to be stuck at the central government level. Before the West Java Pilkada, Ridwan Kamil promised to immediately start construction. However, until he was elected Governor of West Java, the Bandung Cable Car project was still stalled.

Another development plan that ended in discourse was the construction of the Cibiru underpass. The construction of the underpass is expected to relieve traffic jams that often occur in East Bandung.

At that time, Ridwan Kamil conveyed the plan while uploading a photo of the design or grand design of the Cibiru underpass tunnel. At that time Ridwan Kamil hoped that the underpass construction project would start in 2016. But again, the plan just evaporated. No news until now.

However, not all of Ridwan Kamil's construction is for transportation in Bandung or West Java. While still serving as Mayor of Bandung, Ridwan Kamil successfully completed the construction of the Antapani Flyover. The flyover was inaugurated by the then Vice President of the Republic of Indonesia, Jusuf Kalla, on January 24, 2017.

Citing Bisnis, the construction of the Antapani Flyover cost Rp. 23.5 billion. The flyover is also expected to reduce congestion that often occurs at the intersection.

The process of building the Antapani Flyover only took 6 months. The speed of the work process is due to the use of Corrugated Mortarbusa Pusjatan (CMP) technology developed by the Research and Development Center for Road Research and Development of the Ministry of PUPR.

In addition, the figure of Ridwan Kamil is considered a pioneer for regional leaders who are able to use social media to present plans or accept citizens' criticism. Even at the same time control the performance of the apparatus. Not surprisingly, at that time Ridwan Kamil was known as the "modern" mayor.

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