MRT Jakarta Contributes Suggestions For Bali LRT Development Project

DOK ANTARA PHOTO/Aditya Pradana Putra/foc.

PT MRT Jakarta (Perseroda) was involved in the plan to build a light rail transit (LRT) system on the island of Bali based on a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the DKI Jakarta Provincial Government and the Bali Provincial Government.

President Director of PT MRT Jakarta Tuhiyat said, even though the MoU for the cooperation already exists, his party still provides assistance in nature (goods or services) because the form of concrete assistance is still under discussion.

"Our current role is still just giving advice regarding design planning, financing schemes, station construction, and so on," said Tuhiyat as quoted by ANTARA, Wednesday, October 25.

Although Bali has a very good public transportation development plan, the province lacks resources to develop the project. Therefore, Bali asked for assistance from Jakarta, which is already experienced in developing the public transportation system through the MoU," he said. Tuhiyat said that currently there are already team members who communicate every day with the Bali government regarding this cooperation. The Bali Provincial Government has also appointed a regional company (Perusda) to handle all the needs related to the cooperation before the establishment of its own regional regulation that handles transportation affairs.

Furthermore, the DKI Jakarta and Bali Governments will design a Cooperation Agreement (PKS) to follow up on the previous MoU and clarify the role of PT MRT Jakarta in the development of the mass transportation system in Bali.

"It is PKS that determines whether the role of PT MRT will be as an advisor, or shareholder, or contractor, we are still waiting for the discussion of PKS," said Tuhiyat.

Tuhiyat hopes that the discussion of the agreement can be completed as soon as possible because President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) asks for a limited meeting to discuss this next month.

In last September, Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan targeted the laying of the LRT project groundbreaking (groundbreaking) on the island of Bali, which crosses I Gusti Ngurah Rai Airport, to be carried out in early 2024.

"We hope that the groundbreaking will be early next year, early next year, we can groundbreaking because the study has been carried out for a long time, but due to the COVID-19 outbreak, we started it again," said Luhut after a limited meeting of Public Transportation Integration at the Merdeka Palace, Jakarta, Wednesday (27/9).