DKI Provincial Government Targets September 2024 LRT Velodrome-Manggarai To Operate Limited

JAKARTA - Head of the DKI Jakarta Transportation Agency, Syafrin Liputo, said that his party targets the Jakarta LRT with the Velodrome-Manggarai route to operate in a limited manner in 2024.

When fully operational, the Jakarta LRT is targeted to carry 185 thousand passengers per day. However, based on the results of a feasibility study, it is estimated that the Jakarta LRT passengers will be around 80 thousand to 100 thousand passengers per day.

"At the latest, the Jakarta LRT with the Velodrome-Manggarai route, in September 2024 will have limited operations. At least, there are already those serving (passengers)," Syafrin told reporters, Thursday, February 16.

If it is not delayed, the light rail construction work on the Velodrome-Manggarai route is planned to start in August this year.

Design construction, clearing, and arrangement of land in the field is already underway. Now, PT Jakarta Propertindo as the BUMD assigned to build the Jakarta LRT is in the process of completing the required documents before construction begins.

"There have been documents prepared there, by Jakpro it is being prepared," said Syafrin.

Meanwhile, the Main Director of PT Jakpro Iwan Takwin emphasized that the construction of the Jakarta LRT line Velodrome-Manggarai route will not have an impact on evicting residents' settlements.

Iwan said that the rail posts and the Jakarta LRT station phase 1B were not built on residential land, but on the green line.

"There are no (residents' houses affected) because the tracks are all in the middle of the road, in the median of the road. So, (LRT construction) is not affected by houses," said Iwan.

It's just that the construction of the Jakarta Velodrome-Manggarai LRT is likely to have an impact on the trees that have to be felled. However, Jakpro will replace the trees according to regulations.

Apart from that, Iwan also did not deny that the construction of the phase 1B LRT would disrupt traffic. However, as much as possible, construction workers will try to regulate work methods to reduce the impact of congestion caused.

"Traffic circulation there is affected, that will be the implementation challenge later. How does he manage the timeline, work methods. So, what will become their activities later in the field will not have too much impact and hinder the activities of the people who are there," he explained.

It is planned that the Jakarta LRT phase 1B will have 5 stations with a length of 6.4 kilometers, namely Pemuda Station, BPKP Station, Pasar Pramuka Station, Matraman Station, and Manggarai Station.

So far, 6 LRT stations have operated with a length of 5.2 kilometers in phase 1. So, if phase 1B has been built, the Jakarta LRT will have a route length of 12.2 kilometers with 11 stations starting from Pegangsaan Dua Station to Manggarai Station.

In continuing the construction of the Jakarta LRT Velodrome-Manggarai route, the DKI Pemprov has provided regional capital participation (PMD) of around IDR 900 billion sourced from the 2023 budget year budget. It is targeted that construction of the LRT Velodrome-Manggarai will start this year.