Hyperdrive

Indonesia Underground Opens, Making 34-Year Dream Reality

$1.1 billion metro system to carry 170,000 travellers daily
Indonesia announces start of phase two of Jakarta project

Joko Widodo at the Jakarta Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Istora-Mandiri Station on March 24.Photographer: Rony Zakaria/Bloomberg

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By Rieka Rahadiana

March 24, 2019 at 5:33 AM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

Indonesia rolled its first train through a new underground rail network in the capital city of Jakarta on Sunday, another step in its struggles to overcome traffic gridlock in one of the busiest cities in Southeast Asia.

President Joko Widodo, who got the project off the ground in 2013, inaugurated the project, making the 34-year-old dream come true.