Wayan Koster Promises To Restart Trans Metro Dewata Bus

Wayan Koster/PHOTO: Dafi-VOI

The elected Governor of Bali Wayan Koster gave priority to revive the Trans Metro Dewata Bus into public transportation after it was inaugurated.

"Bus, yes, priority," he said, Thursday, January 9.

Trans Metro Dewata, the public transportation connecting Denpasar, Badung, Gianyar, and Tabanan (Sarbagita) stopped operating on January 1, 2025 after the central government as the program owner did not proceed due to budget constraints.

The Governor of Bali was elected as a result of the 2024 Simultaneous Regional Elections, which felt that sophisticated public transportation was important so that it had to be turned on, but the operations had to be reviewed because if it was revived it would be the responsibility of the region, not the center anymore. "If you want it to be turned on, it will be studied more carefully, effectively, and efficiently in its implementation," said Wayan Koster.

Asked about the payment method, Koster conveyed the idea of sharing the cost burden, considering that the operation of the Trans Metro Dewata Bus requires more than Rp80 billion so that it becomes a heavy burden for the province if it bears alone.

The option of sharing the cost burden of Trans Metro Dewata was also recommended by the Indonesian Transportation Society (MTI), considering that this public transportation serves Sarbagita, so that the governments of Denpasar City, Badung Regency, Gianyar, and Tabanan can share with each other.

"Sharing later on the Bali APBD with district and city budgets," said Koster.

The Wayan Koster-Giri Prasta pair itself does see problems on roads such as congestion and supporting infrastructure as a very urgent need for Bali, especially in the Sarbagita tourist area. Recently, there was also a debate about the existence of online taxis that harm conventional tourism drivers because they were not orderly, and became one of the contributors to traffic jams because they stopped along the way.

"I think this is a long complaint and I catch it as a very positive thing, indeed the Deputy Governor and I have designed to take a policy to solve the problem as soon as possible," he said.

On the road infrastructure side, Wayan Koster-Giri Prasta also promised to continue the Mengwi-Gilimanuk Toll Road project, because the ministry has confirmed the continuation of this project.

"The current stage is land acquisition, the day until the end of 2024 land acquisition in the lane area that crosses the HGU land belonging to Perumda Bali and 2025 will be continued to another route," said Koster.