REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Construction of Jakarta's Light Rail Transit (LRT) project has been 85 percent completed. It is expected to be ready for operation ahead of the Asian Games next month.

"LRT of Jakarta is to be operational in August this year a week before the start of Asian Games," Veri Yonnevil a member of the city council (DPRD) said here on Wednesday.

The LRT Jakarta has been designed to cope with worse traffic jams in the capital city, especially from Kelapa Gading in North Jakarta to Velodrome in East Jakarta. Meanwhile, another route of LRT Jakarta will not be available to support the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta as its construction is impossible to reach completion in the near future. One of the problem that hindered the construction was land clearing issue.

In Palembang, the government has already built a 24 kilometer long elevated rail track of LRT linking the Sultan Mahmud Badaruddin II International Airport and the Jakabaring sport center in the South Sumatra capital city, passing through 14 stations.

Earlier, President Joko Widodo expressed relief on Friday after he personally tested the LRT system being built in Palembang, South Sumatra on Friday (July 13). He even felt it was better than in Europe.

"It felt better than when I rode the LRT system in Europe," the president, who is commonly known as Jokowi, said. "What made me happier is that the LRT system is made of 95 percent local materials."

The Rp10.9 trillion project has a local content of 95 percent making it relatively cheap compared with those of Malaysia and Manila of the Philippines. The project was built by the state-owned construction company PT Waskita Karya.

Construction of the project which began in 2014, is to be completed this month designed mainly to facilitate the transport of athlete from the airport to the city.

The track is built over land along the main road in the city that the implementation of the project would not be delayed on difficulty in land clearing. Land clearing has been one of the main drag in the implementation of many infrastructure projects in the country. Land owners would put a much higher price when they know their land would be used for big projects.

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