Jakarta’s mass rapid transit (MRT) system has long been a pipe dream for the traffic-choked Indonesian capital, but 5 years after groundbreaking on the project it looks like there truly is a light at the end of the tunnel, with work on the long-gestating project nearly complete.
Despite the project’s numerous setbacks in the past, we believe the government when they tell us that the project is really almost complete — mainly because they’ve already moved on to focusing on how they can start monetizing it.
William P Sabandar, the president director of PT MRT, state-run company charged with overseeing the project, said they will soon conduct an auction for companies to purchase the naming rights to MRT station names in Jakarta.
“The name of the station will be auctioned by us. For example (station name) in Bundaran HI. We will give the opportunity to the owners of buildings or those who have brands to bid and we will name the station according to the winner,” William said yesterday as quoted by Kompas.
William said the auction was part of PT MRT’s plans to monetize the project besides ticket sales. He said money from the auctions would also be used to supplement the station’s maintenance budget and possibly subsidize tickets.
In addition to selling naming rights, the stations will lease space within the stations for tenants and corporate promotions.
According to MRT Jakarta, construction on the main infrastructure for the public transport system was 93.33% done as of the end of April and the MRT is on track to to be operational in March 2019.
Dengan kemajuan konstruksi fase 1 koridor utara – selatan sampai dengan 30 April 2018 di angka 93,34% MRT Jakarta terus akan menjaga jadwal konstruksi untuk operasional bulan Maret 2019 nanti. Ini lah video update untuk bulan April. Saksikan video2 kami di YouTube MRT Jakarta. pic.twitter.com/ggkdE6PwiP
— MRT Jakarta (@mrtjakarta) May 11, 2018