Indonesia to build railroad to Jakarta airport

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia plans to build a railway line linking Jakarta with the main Soekarno-Hatta international airport in an effort to ease the city's traffic problems, the railroad operator's chief said on Wednesday.

PT RaiLink expects to wrap up the 18-km (11-mile) railroad by 2009 and predicts it will ferry around 9 million passengers a year, the company's president director, Masjraul Hidayat, told Reuters.

The 1.7 trillion rupiah ($180.2 million) project is part of the government's ongoing efforts to ease traffic in the city where roads are clogged from morning until night with cars, motorcycles and ageing smoke-belching buses.

"We expect to carry around 20-30 percent of passengers travelling to and from the airport. According to our recent survey, there were about 30 million passengers travelling via Soekarno-Hatta airport in 2006," Hidayat said.

He said RaiLink, a joint venture firm between state-owned railway company PT Kereta Api and state-owned airport operator PT Angkasa Pura II, was still considering options to finance the projects. He did not elaborate.

Jakarta, which has around 9 million people living within its city limits and another five million in sprawling suburban districts, has no subway or light railway services.

A monorail system is also under construction, but the project has suffered from funding problems, partners dropping out and general red tape.

A mass rapid transit system in the capital is also ultimately planned at an estimated cost of 9 trillion rupiah.

The government needs around $140 billion to finance development of infrastructure projects such as ports, toll roads, and railways in a bid to quicken economic growth and reduce unemployment between 2005 and 2009.

($1 = 9,435 rupiah)