Trial To Pay Tolls Without Stopping In Bali-Mandara Postponed

Bali Toll Gate (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - The MLFF trial on the Bali - Mandara toll road on June 1, 2023 was postponed. This was stated by PT Roatex Indonesia Toll System (RITS) as the implementing business entity (BUP).

"The MLFF trial should have been on June 1 in Bali, but we from the BUP apologize to the public and the Indonesian government that we have not been able to carry out the trial," said President Director of Roatex Indonesia Toll System Musfihin Dahlan quoting Antara, Tuesday, May 30.

He said the reason the trial could not be carried out was because the MLFF system technology prepared for the trial had not been able to meet the agreed key performance indicator (KPI) standards.

"The big goal is that this system guarantees 100 percent of the Toll Road Business Entity (BUJT) revenue from toll rates. Until a few days before June 1, we cannot get 100 percent KPI from the main contractor (main contractor), namely the Hungarian Multi Contact Zrt company.," he said.

The technology may be submitted to Indonesia, he continued, has not been tested and has not been adjusted to the conditions of need in Indonesia. Possibly elsewhere in Hungary, the technology is in accordance with the environment and conditions in Hungary, while in Indonesia it is somewhat different.

"The most basic difference in us is that in Hungary the toll road operator is under control and paid by the government, while BUJT in Indonesia is a private party that they invest in and get loans from banks and it is civil or pure business. Therefore, it cannot be implemented as well as MLFF without considering the condition of BUJT in Indonesia. that's what I think is the fundamental difference between Hungary and Indonesia," said Musfihin Dahlan.

He added that his party had conveyed this to the Indonesian government regarding this matter, and the Indonesian government already knew about it.

"I think overall we ask the government to review the MLFF program, so that in the future it can be carried out properly in accordance with the expectations of the government and the expectations of toll road operators in Indonesia and of course the expectations of the Indonesian people," he said.

Another fundamental difference that is the reason for the delay in the MLFF trial is related to technology transfer.

Musfihin said that his party wanted to submit the MLFF project to the government as a whole, as technology owned by the Indonesian government. Therefore, the entire process (including technology transfer) must be submitted.

"Until today, we have not been able to get a repository and source code from the developer (Hungaria). These two things are important because of how the Indonesian government will be able to control and our team from Indonesia will control the development of this system," he said.

Previously, the Ministry of Public Works and Public Housing (PUPR) through the Toll Road Regulatory Agency (BPJT) planned to conduct a trial of the transition of the contactless non-cash toll transaction system or Multi Lane Free Flow (MLFF) on June 1, 2023 in Bali.

With MLFF, the toll transaction system will be faster because users no longer need to stop attaching electronic cards, so as to reduce queues at toll gates. In addition, MLFF makes the operational cost of toll collection more efficient.