Lessons Learned from a Cancelled Urban Transport Project in a Developing Country: The Importance of the Front-end Planning Phase

In many developing countries, infrastructure development has played an important role in driving economic and social growth. It has also been useful in accelerating development at both regional and national levels. Nevertheless, history provides many examples of infrastructure projects that have been cancelled for one reason or another. Such cancellations have often resulted in losses. Thus, it is important to study and learn from these cancelled projects in order to improve future project performance. This paper investigates the case of a cancelled urban transport infrastructure project in Indonesia. The case considered in this study is that of the Jakarta monorail project which was started in 2004 and completely discontinued in 2015. The example of the Jakarta monorail project is instructive as it has not been the subject of intensive study up to this point. This paper takes a case study approach, coupled with comprehensive reviews of extensive sources on the topic of cancelled infrastructure projects. This study applies a thematic coding technique using NVivo11 software to analyze and find patterns from qualitative data. The observed issues were grouped into three categories, i.e.: the history, causes and impacts of the Jakarta monorail cancellation. Furthermore, the authors also underscore the importance of making a “kill decision” as an option. The findings from this paper also highlight the importance of front-end planning in infrastructure projects.

In many developing countries, infrastructure development has played an important role in driving economic and social growth. It has also been useful in accelerating development at both regional and national levels. Nevertheless, history provides many examples of infrastructure projects that have been cancelled for one reason or another. Such cancellations have often resulted in losses. Thus, it is important to study and learn from these cancelled projects in order to improve future project performance. This paper investigates the case of a cancelled urban transport infrastructure project in Indonesia. The case considered in this study is that of the Jakarta monorail project which was started in 2004 and completely discontinued in 2015. The example of the Jakarta monorail project is instructive as it has not been the subject of intensive study up to this point. This paper takes a case study approach, coupled with comprehensive reviews of extensive sources on the topic of cancelled infrastructure projects. This study applies a thematic coding technique using NVivo11 software to analyze and find patterns from qualitative data. The observed issues were grouped into three categories, i.e.: the history, causes and impacts of the Jakarta monorail cancellation. Furthermore, the authors also underscore the importance of making a “kill decision” as an option. The findings from this paper also highlight the importance of front-end planning in infrastructure projects.