[sustran] Jakarta’s mass transport plan runs into Sindhi roadblock

[Vinay Baindur]

http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/world/jakartas-mass-transport-plan-runs-into-sindhi-roadblock/article4946152.ece


*Jakarta’s mass transport plan runs into Sindhi roadblock*

PALLAVI AIYAR

TOPICS
World
Indonesia

transport
mass transit

The business owners on Fatmawati street contend that an elevated train
station on the road violates their civic rights and will be detrimental to
their business interests

Jakarta’s attempts at projecting itself as a shiny megalopolis, emblematic
of the “rise of Asia”, always runs into one traffic snarl-shaped absence:
that of a mass rapid transit system like Bangkok’s skytrain, Singapore’
MRT, or Delhi’s Metro. After remaining 25-years in the planning, Jakarta’s
MRT was finally “launched” in May this year. But two months on, actual
construction is yet to begin, in part due to the protestations of a group
of Sindhi retailers, who have been holding up the commencement of works
since 2011.

Wisps of agarbati float across Gagandas Lalwani’s furnishing store and
calendars with images of Lakshmi and Ganesha intersperse the curtain
tassels and upholstery fabric that flank the walls.* “We are going to be
victims of the MRT,” says Mr. Lalwani*, an elderly, second-generation
Indian-Indonesian, who is amongst the 60-70 Sindhis who own furnishing
stores along the busy south-Jakarta shopping street of Fatmawati.

It is the contention of Fatmawati business owners that the city’s plans to
build an elevated train station on the road, as part of the first phase of
the MRT’s construction, violates their civic rights and will be detrimental
to their business interests. Mr. Lalawani alleges it will lead to a
“slumification” of the area, as has happened in other parts of Jakarta
where train stations have been built.

He also objects to the fact that the distance between the elevated station
and shop fronts will only be 22 metres, less than the minimum recommended
space of 32 metres. *There have been no consultations with civil society
stakeholders he says, pointing to the fact that business owners in the area
were given summary notices in late 2011, announcing the MRT as a fait
accompli.*

Mr. Lalwani’s group of protesters, known as Masyarakat Peduli MRT, are
resisting sale of their land to the city government, a requirement for the
project to move forward.

“This is an unusual group of people,” says Dr. Danang Parikesit, president
of the Indonesia Transportation Society, a think tank. “As Indians they are
highly educated and have even been to Delhi on a study tour to prepare a
case study of the Delhi metro in support of their contention.” This
contention is that either the MRT should not be built in central Jakarta at
all and instead focus on the suburbs where low-income residents most need
it, or at the very least, the stations should be built underground rather
than elevated.

Last week, a delegation from Delhi Metro, led by Managing Director Mangu
Singh was in Jakarta. Following a meeting with them, Jakarta Vice-Governor
Basuki Tjahaja Purnama announced that Delhi’s experiences had proved the
anxieties of Fatmawati retailers to be unfounded. The reason Delhi metro
fares remain affordable, he said, is because most of its tracks are
overland rather than below ground.

Mr. Lalwani rebuts the claim by pointing out that the city centre in Delhi
is served by underground stations, while overland ones have been
constructed largely in the suburbs. In contrast, the Jakarta MRT would see
overland stations in the heart of the city.

Though the city government remains unyielding in the face of the Fatmawati
retailers’ demands, at least one of Mr. Lalwani’s wishes is about to come
true. The Vice-Governor announced that a team of officials from MRT Jakarta
will soon be sent to Delhi for training.

“The Delhi metro should be the benchmark for cost and efficiency,” agrees
Mr. Lalwani. However, he points out that any Indian involvement in the
Indonesian project will perforce be limited, given that the bulk of the
Jakarta MRT is to be funded by a Japanese soft loan tied to the requirement
that Japanese companies be the primary contract winners.

Consequently, two consortiums of Japanese and state-owned companies have
won the tenders for the first three work packages announced for the project
so far.

The first phase of the Jakarta MRT comprises 15.7 km of track and 13
stations, of which seven are planned as elevated.

The entire project will cost an estimated ¥144 billion ($1.78 billion) and
is being funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency to the tune
of ¥120 billion ($1.49 billion).

Keywords: Jakarta mass rapid transit system, Sindhi retailers, Fatmawati
business owners