Greater Jakarta LRT connecting Cibubur to Cawang to be ready for trial by April 2019: official

Jakarta’s LRT railway system. Photo: Instagram/@lrtjakarta
Jakarta’s LRT railway system. Photo: Instagram/@lrtjakarta

While the neighborhood of Cibubur in East Jakarta has seen a huge growth in commercial and residential developments in recent years, the area still lacks railway access. But that looks set to change next year as the construction of the Greater Jakarta LRT (Light Rail Transit) system is reportedly nearing completion.

As reported by Tempo today, state-owned construction company PT Adhi Karya says that construction on the first phase of the Greater Jakarta LRT connecting Cibubur to Cawang (also in East Jakarta) has reached 70.9% as of October and that trains will be running on its elevated tracks soon.

“By the end of January 2019 it will be complete and in April we will have the trains for a trial,” Adhi Karya First Director Budi Harto said.

That said, Budi Harto did not provide a date for when full commercial operations of the 14.89 kilometers long line would commence, but officials previously said it would be ready in 2019.

With Cawang serving as a major hub for the Greater Jakarta LRT, construction on two lines connecting it to East Bekasi and Dukuh Atas in Central Jakarta are also ongoing and both are targeted to being operating in 2019 as well.

Plan for the Greater Jakarta LRT. Photo: lrtjabodebek.com
Plan for the Greater Jakarta LRT. Photo: lrtjabodebek.com

After the completion of the first three lines shown above, construction will commence on more Greater Jakarta LRT lines, namely Cibubur-Bogor, Dukuh Atas-Palmerah-Senayan, and Palmerah-Grogol.

Funding wise, the Greater Jakarta LRT is separate from the Jakarta LRT, even though their trains look the same and their services will be interconnected. The former is a national government funded project designed to connect Jakarta to its satellite cities while the latter is under the jurisdiction of the Jakarta Provincial Government, with the bulk of construction on its first phase, connecting Kelapa Gading to the velodrome in Rawamangung, having already been completed and commercial operations targeted to start before the end of this year.

Both the Greater Jakarta LRT and the Jakarta LRT were initially scheduled for completion before the start of the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta that took place in August. Having missed that deadline, 2019 is likely to be the earliest we’ll be seeing trains on elevated tracks in and around Jakarta.

Around the same time, Jakarta’s long-awaited MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) railway system is set to be commercially ready by March 2019.




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