Jakarta, Oct 31 (ANTARA) - Traffic congestion in the country's capital city is a chronic problem, besides annual floods, which is posing a grave challenge to new Jakarta Governor Joko Widodo (Jokowi). "We have to build a culture of traffic discipline, improve transportation means and increase strength of police staff to support efforts to overcome traffic woes in Jakarta," Jokowi said at the Jakarta City Hall on Tuesday.
With a population of about 12 million, Jakarta experiences massive traffic jams every day. Poor public transportation causes residents to use their private cars or motorcycles and according to the Jakarta Regional Police, there are about 3.1 million private cars and 8.2 million motorcycles in the city. The state of public transport is inadequate and approximately 72.34 percent of the 22,000 buses operating in the city are already old and no longer fit for operations.
Data at the Jakarta Transportation Service showed that in 2002 about 61 percent of Jakarta's commuters still used public transport but the figure dropped to 20 percent by 2010.
According to the Indonesian Transportation Community (MTI) organization, Jakarta needs 20,000-30,000 new buses and funds of Rp30 trillion must be made available.
The road span in Jakarta is only 7,650 km or about 40.1 sq km, but expansion of roads is only at the approximate rate of 0.01 percent per annum, which is insufficient for the 11 percent annual increase in the number of vehicles in the city.
Commuters using public transport blame private cars for traffic woes, while users of private vehicles blame the bad condition of public transport.
Therefore, in his efforts to address the problem of traffic congestion in the capital city, the new Jakarta governor said there were at least three steps he would take.
"The first step is to build a traffic culture, namely to get traffic users in order. The behaviour of motorists must be changed so that they would be disciplined and abide by traffic regulations," said Jokowi.
Jakarta road users are notorious lack of traffic discipline. Deputy Director for Traffic Affairs of the Jakarta Regional Police, Adj. Sr. Comr. Wahyono said that his department had been taking firm action against violators of traffic rules and regulations.
He added that traffic violations by motorists in Jakarta in 2011 numbered 1.2 million cases. Up to the second week of October 2012, the Jakarta police have recorded 600,000 traffic violations.
Jokowi said that the second step of his program in overcoming traffic woes in Jakarta was to build an adequate mass transportation system which would provide convenient services so that the commuters would be encouraged to leave their private cars in their garages.
"We have to build enough and convenient transportation systems such as the Mass Rapid Transit system (MRT), monorail and bus corridors," asserted Jokowi.
The Jakarta government is planning to build an MRT with the first stage expected to cover the North-South (Lebak Bulus-Hotel Indonesia) route stretching over 15.5 kilometres, with 10.5 kilometres in the elevated corridor and five kilometres underground.
Six underground stations would be built along the route, namely at Masjid Al Azhar, Istora Senayan (Ratu Plaza), Bendungan Hilir, Setiabudi, Dukuh Atas, Bundaran Hotel Indonesia and seven elevated stations, namely at Lebak Bulus, Fatmawati, Cipete Raya, H Nawi, Blok A, Blok M and Sisingamangaraja.
Towards the beginning of the operation, the MRT will have a capacity to carry 212,000 people per day, which can be raised to 960,000 per day. The route will be covered in 30 minutes and the tickets will be integrated with other relevant modes of transportation.
The train headway in the first stage is projected at five minutes, which could be increased to every three minutes. The project would need funds of Rp15 trillion.
Besides, the Jakarta government will also continue the development of a monorail project whose construction had been stopped several years ago. The pillars of the monorail were already installed in some areas of the city.
They would be used for the construction of three monorail tracks, which will serve three routes: Tanah Abang-Palmerah-Mega Kuningan-Senayan; Cawang Atas-Senen-Ancol; and Cawang Atas-Grogol-National Monument.
Adhi Karya president director, Kiswodarmawan said that his company would form a consortium with state-owned companies and regional government-owned companies to implement the project in two phases. The first phase would start this year and finish by 2015, while the second one would begin in 2015.
"The first phase is estimated to cost Rp12 to Rp13 trillion," he noted. The Trans-Jakata busway transportation system is operated by Trans Mayapada Busway. The buses serve 11 corridors that span the length of the capital with a total lane length of 186.55 km.
The number of corridors is expected to increase to 15 with an increase in the number of buses to reduce waiting time for commuters. Less than 1000 buses are currently serving the 11 corridors and in certain shelters, commuters have to wait for 30 to 40 minutes.
Jokowi said that besides developing the transportation means, he will also issue policies that would support his program to ease traffic woes in Jakarta.
"Besides imposing a parking tax rate, we can also impose a high tax on car purchases," said Jokowi.
He added that he was resolved to overcome traffic congestion which is a common scene in Jakarta's streets.
The Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) said it was ready to assist the governor to help reduce traffic jams in Jakarta, which are estimated to cause a loss of Rp12 trillion per annum.
"We are ready to sit together to discuss ways on how to overcome Jakarta's traffic problems," Kadin chairman, Suryo Bambang Sulisto said on Tuesday.
He added that the business world was ready to provide financial assistance to overcome traffic congestion which affected businesses. ***3***
(T.A014/A/KR-BSR/F001) 31-10-2012 15:24:
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