History
The project suffered from many financial problems and frequent technology partner changes tarnished its reputation.
The project was initially awarded in 2003 to Malaysian company MTrans, the technology owner and builders of the KL Monorail, construction started in June 2004 but was halted after only a few weeks after the funds for the project stopped. MTrans' memorandum of understanding (MoU) was then cancelled after MTrans didn't respond adequately, and the MoU did not move towards a formal agreement.
The project was subsequently awarded to the Singaporean-led Omnico consortium, which proposed to use the Hitachi Monorail system (the base used for the KL Monorail) and then later on switched to the maglev technology by South Korean company ROTEM.
In July 2005, the project changed hands again with a new MoU granted to a consortium of Indonesian companies PT Bukaka Teknik Utama, PT INKA and Siemens Indonesia. (Vice president Jusuf Kalla, who assumed office in October 2004, owns a large stake in Bukaka.) Omnico contested this move, but construction continued nonetheless, under the assumption that the basic foundation piles and pillars can be used by whichever consortium and technology wins in the end. By 2006, a change in shareholder structure resulted to PT Indonesia Transit Central (ITC) controlling 98 percent of the shares in the company, leaving partner Omnico with only 2 percent, reduced from its initial 45 percent.
In March 2008, developers PT Jakarta Monorail officially abandoned the project. Then, in April, numerous pylons to support the future track were illegally demolished, probably by metal thieves. The city administration continues to look for a new partner, but no firm decision has been made.
Read more about this topic: Jakarta Monorail
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“I am ashamed to see what a shallow village tale our so-called History is. How many times must we say Rome, and Paris, and Constantinople! What does Rome know of rat and lizard? What are Olympiads and Consulates to these neighboring systems of being? Nay, what food or experience or succor have they for the Esquimaux seal-hunter, or the Kanaka in his canoe, for the fisherman, the stevedore, the porter?”
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