Mass rapid transit (MRT) public transportation system in Jakarta. (Photo: antaranews.com)Jakarta (VNA) – The Asian Development Bank (ADB) isin talks to help finance up to 600 million USD for the expansion of Jakarta’smass rapid transit (MRT) project.
The MRT now stretches from Lebak Bulus to the Hotel IndonesiaRoundabout in central Jakarta. Work is underway to extend the tracks to Kotaand later eventually West Ancol on what they call a “north-south” line. Thereare also further plans to develop the “east-west” line which connects West Javaprovince’s Cikarang and Banten province’s Balaraja.
Jiro Tominaga, ADB’s Country Director for Indonesia, said thatthe bank had been having active discussions with the government on taking partin the east-west expansion. The funding will likely be a co-financing schemetogether with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
Speaking at a recent press briefing in Jakarta, Jiro said thatADB’s funding can be up to 300-600 million USD but gave no information aboutJICA’s funding.
Aside from loans, ADB also plans to provide technical assistanceto develop the MRT project.
Jiro said there is some technical assistance that ADB willprobably be able to provide Indonesia through grant financing. But a bulk ofthe financing will be loans.
In October, Weni Maulina, the construction director at MRTJakarta, revealed that ADB could fund the East-West Line project. Accordingto Weni, ADB would likely take part in the Tomang-Medan Satria route.
According to Indonesia’s Finance Ministry, as of February, JICA has funded 551 billion yen (about 3.9billion USD) for projects in Indonesia, including approximately 227 billionyen for the MRT project./.
