KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 17 — The Malaysian government is reportedly looking into investing in Indonesia’s Light Rapid Transit (LRT) in Batam City, Riau Islands.
The move, which was reported by Indonesian news outlet Antara was confirmed by the Management Agency for the Batam Free Trade Zone and Free Port (BP Batam).
The report said that BP Batam has the duty and authority to carry out the management, development, and construction of the zones according to its respective functions.
Its head of Strategic Programme Planning Centre, Fesly Abadi Paranoan was reported saying that it is very open to receiving investments from Malaysia to develop the mass transportation sector in the region.
“They (the Malaysian delegates) said that the development in Batam City is very rapid. They want to know more about the process, incentives, and investment opportunities, especially the LRT that we have planned,” he was quoted as saying.
The LRT project aims to accommodate the city’s growing population and ease congestion, thus making it a modern city.
BP Batam’s head of the Public Relations, Promotion, and Protocol Bureau, Ariastuty Sirait was reported saying that they are still finalising the LRT project development plan, but has entered the stage of preparing a feasibility study, which is being conducted by a consortium from Singapore.
“We are still waiting for the results of the feasibility study,” she was quoted as saying.
Once the study is complete, Siriat said it will evaluate the documents, and prepare the auction documents.
In May last year, Channel News Asia reported that Batam City’s LRT project was expected to begin in the middle of 2024, with the project targeted to finish in 2025.
It was reported that the first phase of the project will be 11km long with 16 stations planned.
The project for Phase 1 is valued at US$110 million or RM518 million.
