Indonesia drafting bill to overhaul railway industry

The Indonesian government and lawmakers are preparing the rail transportation bill that will end the state's monopoly on the industry and requires an audit of state railway company PT Kereta Api (PT KA), local press said Saturday.

When the bill is endorsed scheduled for March 27, the government and PT KA are required to conduct a technical audit as a preliminary step toward rehabilitating all facilities and railway networks on Java and Sumatra.

The transitional ruling also stipulates that all trains, wagons, railway infrastructure and networks are to be audited and repaired to make trains an alternative cheap and safe public transportation mode, reported major national newspaper The Jakarta Post.

PT KA's management will also be asked to increase the salaries of all employees whose status was not upgraded when the firm became a limited company in 1992. Since 1992, all employees who were originally recruited as servicemen have been underpaid and have not been registered with social security programs.

The bill also opens the way for national corporations to take part in the rail industry, although it does not set out detailed regulations.

"The government will issue a regulation detailing the private sector's involvement in the train business. The bill gives only general rules," Transportation Minister Hatta Radjasa has said recently in a meeting with a House of Representatives' committee drafting the bill.

But the minister said that despite the bill, the government would remain the main regulator in the railway transportation.

He explained that the government would likely give concessions to national corporations to run monorails and mass rapid transportation in big cities and run special trains to transport coal, fuel and other commodities.

Source: Xinhua