Jakarta, Mar 12 (IANS): Jakarta on Tuesday began a free public trial of its first metro service, a transport network which was first planned in the 1990s and has been a much-anticipated project due to chronic traffic jams in the Indonesian capital.

The Mass Rapid Transit system started operating on Tuesday morning with an initial daily limit of 4,000 passengers, which will be increased to 28,800 by the last day of trials on March 24, reports Efe news.

The company expects a total of 285,600 people to participate in this first phase, which requires advance registration.

PT MRT Jakarta said in a statement that 190,599 passengers had registered for the trials.

The first 16 km stretch of the metro, which will be extended in successive construction phases, runs through the capital from north to south connecting the area near the iconic Hotel Indonesia to Lebak Bulus and passes through the commercial centre of the city.

The duration of the ride is 30 minutes, which shortens usual rush-hour travel time by up to an hour.

The trains, built by Japanese company Nippon Sharyo, can reach a maximum speed of 80 kph in underground tunnels and 100 kph on elevated stretches.

Each train has a capacity of around 2,000 passengers.

Jakarta is one of the top three traffic-congested cities in the world, according to a traffic index developed by the navigation systems company TomTom.