Jakarta City Government To Convert regional Microbusses

Jakarta, July 16 (Antara) - The Jakarta Provincial Government plans to convert the microbus public transport (mikrolet) to Minibuses to operate in regional and residential areas. "We have a plan to convert the microbus with a medium-size bus, which will only be operating in the certain region only," said Jakarta`s Vice Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama at the City Hall, Central Jakarta, on Tuesday. Basuki said that three units of microbuses would be converted to one mini bus, however before the conversion is underway, it will first make a preparation and coordination with the state-run Djakarta Transportation Bus Company (PPD). "We must first prepare the bus`s pool before making the vehicle exchange so that the owner can manage the public transport bus decently through PPD," said Basuki. Basuki said the state-run Djakarta Transportation Bus Company will provide low maintenance services cost to the owners of the bus, including training for drivers which will be done in the pool. "With this scheme is expected that the bus owners could be merged as PPD`s shareholders in a long-term plan," said Basuki. Nonetheless, the realization of the microbus replacement plan with mini bus is still waiting for the central government`s decision to grant PPD`s management to the Jakarta city government, Basuki said. Basuki added if PPD is assigned to the Jakarta city government, then the city government must budgeted government capital investment of Rp170 billion. Once paid, then the bus company`s land and pool will be owned by the city government.