Clean Rivers Key in Preventing Damage to Tracks, KAI Says

The Jakarta Globe, December 15, 2012



State railway operator Kereta Api Indonesia is urging authorities in Greater Jakarta to improve the condition of rivers to prevent landslides around track beds.

The warning comes after a landslide in early October caused a train derailment on the Jakarta-Bogor line.

“We are hoping that the city administration can anticipate this problem, especially during the rainy season such as now because we cannot ignore the fact that a similar disaster could hit other track beds,” Mateta Rizalulhaq, KAI spokesman for the Jakarta area, said on Friday.

Mateta said that last month’s incident was beyond the KAI’s control.

“That was really beyond our expectation and out of our control. The incident occurred because the environmental changes had reached their peak,” he said.

Mateta said that the landslide that cut access to Bogor and Cilebut stations was likely caused by the blockage of the Cipakancilan river, which caused water to spill over its banks and inundate the track beds.

“We could see with our naked eyes that the river silted because it was full of trash. The rubbish clogged the water gate and the water spilled over, and the first one to be affected by it was the railway.”

He added that KAI had implemented several emergency measures such as creating drainage ditches and optimizing the drainage system around the tracks. But the efforts were not permanent solutions, he said, because they failed to address the main problem, which was garbage being thrown into the already clogged river.

Mateta said that the reopening of the Cilebut-Bojong Gede route went smoothly.

“Right now the speed along the Cilebut-Bojong Gede route is still at 10 kilometers per hour but in a few days we will increase the speed to 20.”

After weeks of being limited to running on only one track after a landslide knocked out the track bed, trains on the Jakarta-Bogor line resumed full services to Bogor and Cilebut stations on Wednesday.

“The work to repair the second track has been completed and the new track bed can now withstand the weight of the train.”

Mateta said the section affected by the landslide was now reinforced and that the track had been shored up with concrete to withstand heavy rain.