Greater Jakarta LRT


The Greater Jakarta LRT or Jabodebek LRT is a rapid transit system currently under construction in Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia, and the adjacent area of West Java and Banten, within Jakarta Metropolitan area. It is being implemented by the central government. To be directly operated by the Indonesian State Railways, the system is planned to connect Jakarta city center with suburbs in Greater Jakarta such as Bogor, Depok and Bekasi, hence its acronym "Jabodebek".
Operation was initially targeted to begin in 2019, however it has been delayed for two years. As of 22 May 2020, construction progress for Phase 1 is at 71.2% and operations is targeted to begin by June 2022.

Background

The Jakarta light rail transit project is aimed to tackle Jakarta's high road traffic congestion. The northern section of the LRT project partly replaces the Jakarta Monorail project which has been cancelled.
The monorail project in Jakarta was planned since the early 2000s. Construction commenced in 2004 but immediately stalled due to insufficient funding. In 2005 the initial pylons were constructed. However, the project was abandoned altogether in 2008, leaving the unfinished pylons blocking the main roads. The monorail line design, including the Green loop line and Blue line gained criticism as it only connected shopping malls in Jakarta's city center and would not connect to Jakarta's suburbs which desperately need transportation infrastructure, and thus would not be useful for Jakartan commuters. Transportation experts deemed that the city center monorail project would not address Jakarta's traffic problems, but would only serve as a novelty tourists' ride. To answer the need for commuter infrastructure, a consortium of five state owned enterprises, led by PT Adhi Karya, proposed the construction of a monorail line connecting Cibubur-Cawang-Kuningan and Bekasi-Cawang across Greater Jakarta. The line will connect the 'Green' and 'Blue' lines originally planned by PT Jakarta Monorail to Jakarta's suburbs Cibubur and Bekasi.
In 2013 the Jakarta monorail project was revived and relaunched. In mid 2014 however, the project was stalled after disagreement between PT Jakarta Monorel, the developer/operator, and the Jakarta Municipal Government over land acquisition for the depot as well as the station designs. Following the disagreements, by 2015 the Jakarta Municipal Government terminated its contract with PT Jakarta Monorel; thus monorail project was disbanded altogether. The numerous stalled monorail support poles will be used by state-owned construction company PT Adhi Karya to develop Jakarta's light rail transit instead. The shift of choice from monorail to a traditional rapid transit system was based on several considerations; compared to monorail, LRT has higher passenger capacity, simpler intersection and switching system, and cheaper maintenance cost.

Lines

In 2015, it was announced that the Indonesian Cabinet Secretary has endorsed the plan to build three light rail transit lines. Total investment cost of this project is estimated to reach 23.8 trillion rupiah.
The construction phase of extension for the planned route Grogol–Pesing–Rawa Buaya–Kamal Raya–Dadap–Soekarno–Hatta International Airport was proposed, but was not mentioned in Presidential Regulations No. 98/2015 .

Phase 1

Phase 1 of the construction consists the entirety of Line 2 and a part of Line 1. The first phase will cost 11.9 trillion rupiah. It will be 43.3 kilometers long, consisting of 18 stations.
Construction of Phase 1 began on 9 September 2015 and was initially predicted to be operational by early 2018, in time for the 2018 Asian Games. However, due to funding, restructuring and land acquisition issues, the project has failed to meet the deadline.
As of June 2020, construction progress has reached 71.6%.

Phase 2

Phase 2 will extend Line 1 southwards, from Cibubur to Bogor Baranangsiang. It is currently under planning.