Prasarana eyes transportation projects in Indonesia

KUALA LUMPUR: Prasarana Malaysia Bhd (Prasarana) has forged ties with its Indonesian counterpart, Akademi Perkeretaapian Indonesia (API), for the provision of training, while exploring business opportunities and bidding for various public transportation projects in the republic.
Prasarana Group President and Chief Executive Officer, Datuk Seri Azmi Abdul Aziz said the Indonesian government was planning to enhance the transportation system in the country.
"Aside from the mass rail transit (MRT) project in Jakarta, Indonesia's rail services will also be expanding to other districts.
"They also have plans for light rail transit (LRT) projects in Jakarta and Palembang," he said after witnessing the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on the training programme between Prasarana unit, Prasarana Integrated Management and Engineering Services (PRIME), and API here today.
PRIME, through its Rail Academy, will conduct training for 78 train drivers for MRT Jakarta and 20 supervisors for its operation control centre, starting this month until mid-2018.
Jakarta is developing two main lines for its MRT project that will crisscross the capital city with a total length of 117.6km, and API is among the institutions responsible for providing industrial training to the republic's skilled labour.
Azmi said the MoU was to further enhance the close collaboration between Malaysia and Indonesia.
"This is a priceless collaboration. A first step with a possibility of sequences.
"During the period of training, we are looking for other potential as well. Apart from MRT Jakarta, there are things going on in other cities and districts in Indonesia. We have to go and make ourselves known," he added.
He also said the non-fare income from foreign markets currently contribute about 30 per cent to Prasarana's revenue.
The public service provider is also exploring business opportunities in Riyadh and Jeddah both in Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates), Mumbai (India) and Brunei, and Azmi said he would make the announcements on its bidding status this year.
Meanwhile, MRT Jakarta Director of Finance and Administration, Tuhiyat, who was also present at the event, said the MRT Phase One in Jakarta was 69 per cent completed and it was scheduled for completion by March 2019.
"MRT Jakarta is being developed by Japanese contractors because it took up loans from a Japanese group.
"Besides a possible expansion of the MRT to other cities, there's a potential for the LRT to be extended to the whole of the Indonesian archipelago...even to Kalimantan and Sulawesi," he added.
The Jakarta MRT, aimed to improve connectivity, curtail severe traffic congestion and reduce logistics costs, is supported by a loan from the Japanese government through the Japan Bank for International Cooperation, which later merged into the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
The loan from JICA is reportedly worth 125.2 billion yen, approximately US$1.18 billion or RM5.20 billion. — Bernama