Project spearheaded by members of the CAI-Asia Partnership Council

At the Steering Committee meeting on 22 Feb, 2011, the City of Palembang decided to implement the Phase 1 of its Mid-term Sustainable Urban Transport Action Plan. The meeting was led by the City's Mayor, Mr. Eddy Santana Putra, and attended by various heads of the departments. Also present at the meeting were ADB's Ms. Priyanka Sood, CDIA's Mr. Joris Van Etten and Sameeha Sheth, and GIZ-SUTIP's Dr. Dino Teddyputra.

Celebrations during a Car Free Day in Palembang

The Mid-term Action Plan, along with the Long-term Strategy on Urban Transport development, is a result of 7-month work by a GHK consultant team that the city engaged in cooperation with GIZ-sponsored SUTIP and CDIA.

Phase 1 includes projects such as, the improvement of the TransMusi bus system and parking management schemes. The parking management part will include removal of on-street parking and providing off-street parking facilities in downtown areas. Park & Ride facilities at the main cordon entries into the city will also be a part of Phase 1. In addition, a new bridge across the Musi River is planned to complement the exisiting bridge, which is serving the City of 1.5 million residents for decades. The estimated investment for Phase 1 is US$175 million. It is expected that the funding will be from various public and private sources that will be coordinated through a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV).

As a next step the city will form a Project Implementation Unit (PIU) that will replace the Task Force to Foster the Implementation of Sustainable Urban Transport. The PIU will also be responsible to establish the SPV.

SUTIP will support the PIU in terms of institutional capacity building, which includes enhancing the capacities of the urban transport regulators and operators in Palembang.

Editor’s Note: The key actors of this project, Mayor Eddy Santana Putra of Palembang City and GIZ, are current members of the CAI-Asia Partnership Council.

Source: http://www.sutp.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2591