Surabaya to Develop Railway Transport System

Surabaya (ANTARA) - Surabaya, Indonesia's second largest city after Jakarta, is keen on building a monorail and tram system. Prof Dr Ir Tri Yogi Yuwono, Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember¿s (ITS) rector, said the city is keen on developing a monorail and tram system. According to him, Surabaya will start developing the monorail and tram system in July 2013. Meanwhile, Surabaya's mayor, Tri Rismaharini, MT, said the city's administration will look into an international tender for the monorail and tram project in July this year. ITS will be supervising the project until its completion in 2014. The mayor said technical matters will be handled by the contractor who wins the tender. "ITS has selected a number of experts in the following fields: civil engineering transportation, civil engineering construction management, civil engineering construction/structure, architecture, urban and regional planning (PWK), informatics engineering, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, product design, and environmental engineering," the rector said. ITS, according to Yogi, is keen to develop the railway transport system to reduce congestion on the roads. In the meantime, the chief of the ITS Centre for Transportation and Logistics Studies, Ir Hera Widyastuti, MT and PhD, said ITS will support the monorail programme, which will be developed from the western to the eastern part of Surabaya. The tram programme will be developed from the northern to the southern part of the city. "We have selected a technical team that comprises experts from several scientific fields. We have selected the assistant rector-II, Ir Muhammad Faqih, MSA and PhD, who is an architecture expert," said Hera, adding that the technical team will help in supervising the project. (*)