Unraveling Passenger Density, Construction Of Additional Stairs At Manggarai Station Accelerated

Illustration of Manggarai Station (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Transportation (Kemenhub) through the Directorate General of Railways (DJKA) will accelerate the construction of additional manual stairs at Manggara Station. This is done as an effort to unravel the density of passengers at the station.

Director General of Railways, Risal Wasal conveyed that the construction of five additional stairs at Manggarai Station has now begun the construction process.

"To respond to the condition of Manggarai Station, which has recently been fairly congested, especially during peak hour, we have started to construct additional stairs from the concourse floor to the ground floor platform on lane 6 and 7, which will soon be followed by lane platforms 8 and 9 at Manggarai Station," said Risal, in an official statement, Thursday, March 9.

Furthermore, Risal said, the additional five manual stairs will be built by DJKA on the north and south sides of Manggarai, including one southern suspension steel ladder which is currently complete and can be used by passengers.

Risal is optimistic that the construction of this additional ladder can be completed in the next few weeks. "Later, when the construction of all these additional stairs is completed, we hope that this effort will be able to help facilitate the transit process as well as be an alternative solution for passenger transfer," said Risal.

Especially at this time, passenger displacement activities are still centered on stairs, escalators and exiting lifts, especially at the peak of busy activities, which are around 06.00 to 09.00 am and from 15.00 to 20.00 pm.

Challenges Of Accelerating Additional Stairs Construction

Risal said that in the midst of the revitalization process of Manggarai Station as a Central Station that was still ongoing, there were a number of challenges in efforts to accelerate additional ladder construction.

"As a mitigation effort in accelerating the construction of this additional ladder, we have involved assistance personnel from the contractor so that as soon as possible the additional stairs we built can operate immediately," said Risal.

Furthermore, Risal mentioned that the challenges arise due to the construction of stairs carried out at active train crossings and in the midst of passenger transit activities.

"So that the ladder construction process does not interfere with KRL services in Manggarai, the work time can only be done on the station window time, which is above 9 pm until 4 am," said Risal.

In addition, continued Risal, the construction process for the five additional stairs cannot be carried out in parallel because it is feared that it will disturb the comfort of passengers.

In terms of manual ladder specifications built by DJKA using full steel materials weighing up to 8 to 9 tons.

According to Risal, the selection of steel materials has an advantage in terms of faster work time and has a longer lifetime with higher durability than the construction of a concrete manual ladder.

Until now, DJKA is still developing Manggarai Station as the first Central Station in Indonesia and is targeted to be fully operational by 2025.