Jakarta pins hopes on underground transit system

Jakarta

WITH their impressive names and heft to match, a lot is riding on four tunnel boring machines chewing their way beneath Jakarta's all but gridlocked thoroughfares to carve out the capital's first mass rapid transit (MRT) system.

In mid June, Mustikabumi, a six-metre high colossus that roughly translates into "Earth Sword", traversed the initial 675 metres from the capital's main roundabout in the centre of town notorious for becoming a waterlogged mess during the rainy season. Antareja, named after an earth-bound shadow puppet character with the power of bringing the dead back to life, is making similarly impressive progress to the south.

The machines are breathing new life into hopes that Jakarta may avoid the worst of the complete gridlock that will hit the city by the end of the decade, according to MRT planners. Dono Boestami, chief executive of MRT Jakarta, the company charged with building and operating the 27 km network says the fir…