INDUSTRY.co.id - Palembang - Ministry of Transportation together with Waskita Karya socializes LRT (Light Rail Transit) Palembang. This socialization was conducted to find out the public expectation on LRT Palembang.

This was conveyed by Minister of Transportation in the event of Joint Dialogue for the Nation Together with the Minister of Transportation at Sriwijaya University of Palembang on Saturday (26/8).

"This socialization is important because LRT is a relatively new mass transportation, we want to know what society expectation in Palembang, hopefully when LRT operates there will be no gap from society," said Minister of Transportation.

In the socialization, the Minister of Transportation explained the importance of mass transportation in a city, such as Jakarta which already has BRT and is being built MRT and LRT.

"One city must have a mass transit, if there is a BRT in Jakarta, and the MRT and LRT are being built, well outside Jakarta, Palembang beat Medan and Padang, Palembang already built LRT," said Minister of Transportation.

Furthermore, the Transportation Minister explained that the Palembang LRT project, targeted to be completed in June 2018, is currently progressing to 55%.

"We are targeting the completion of the LRT by June 2018. Currently, the construction has reached 55%, and we plan to finish in February 2018. The train will start to fade in February and it is expected that June will be tried," said Minister of Transportation.

Regarding the rate to be enacted, the MoC said it would conduct a survey on the purchasing power of the people of Palembang.

"Our big task is shifting (moving) private vehicle users to mass transportation." In concept we will survey the purchasing power of how many Palembang people, "said Minister of Transportation.

The Minister of Transportation hopes that with the operation of LRT as a mass transportation that is timely, safe, convenient and low pollution, private transport users can switch to LRT, thus reducing congestion, "said Menhub.

On the same occasion, Waskita Karya Operational Director Adi Wibowo was quoted as saying by Kemenhub Public Relation describing the number of people who can be transported by LRT in every hour. "We use 14 train sets, 1 train set consisting of 3 carriages and can carry 500 people with 14 train sets, it can carry 4,000 people per hour per direction," said Adi.

Adi said the comparison of travel time of OPI (Ogan Permata Indah) to Airport by land and LRT. "Now maybe 1.5 hours from end to end With the LRT, the time of OPI to the Airport is 40 minutes consisting of 27 minutes of train running and 13 minutes train stop (1 minute stop at each station) at 13 stations , "Explained Adi.

Adi added, LRT will be facilitated by escalator, elevator for difabel and emergency ladder for easy access of its users.

Currently LRT Palembang is being built with a 24.5 km Length, 13 stopping stations and consists of 2 corridors. The first corridor along the 14.5 km from Airport to Ampera. The second corridor from Ampera to Ogan Permata Indah (OPI) is 10 km long.

Also present at the event were Secretary of Provincial of South Sumatera Nasrun Umar, Waskita Karya Operational Director Adi Wibowo, President Director of Pelindo II Elvyn G. Massasya, Political Observer Observer Effendi Ghazali, and Rector of Sriwijaya University Anis Saggaff.