$5.4m budget for bus project approved

$5.4m budget for bus project approved

Ahmad Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The City Council has approved an allocation of Rp 54 billion
(US$5.4 million) from the 2002 city budget for a busway project
connecting Blok M in South Jakarta with downtown Kota in West
Jakarta.

Deputy chairman of the council's Commission D for development
affairs, Ali Imran Husein, claimed that the project would improve
public transportation in Jakarta.

"We support it but we would also urge the city administration
to better explain the technical details," Ali, of the United
Development Party, told reporters on Monday.

He said the planned procurement of some 50 air-conditioned
buses should be done transparently to avoid public suspicions
about possible corruption in the project, which is due to start
in October of this year.

The busway project was one of several projects included on the
agenda of a two-day meeting held by the council to discuss the
city's Rp 8.9 billion draft budget in Puncak, Bogor, West Java.

But because the meeting ended inconclusively last Friday, the
council approved the busway project during an extension of their
meeting at the council building here on Saturday.

A number of councillors feared that the project, which was
designed by transportation experts from the Yogyakarta-based
Gadjah Mada University, would cause traffic jams and
environmental damage.

Hundreds of trees along the Blok M-Kota route, especially
along Jl. Sisingamangaraja, Jl. Jend. Sudirman, and Jl. MH.
Thamrin, will be cut to pave the way for the development of bus
shelters and other facilities for the new transportation system.

Ali of the United Development Party warned the administration
about possible environmental damage as a result of the project's
development.

"The cutting of the trees should be carried out carefully.
It's okay if it will only involve cutting the tops of the trees,
not felling them completely," he told reporters.

As the new system will require dedicated bus lanes and reduce
the lanes available to private cars, it is feared that the plan
could worsen traffic congestion along the affected roads.

"Yes, it will create traffic jams. It will be inconvenient for
private car owners. But, we cannot please everybody," the City
Transportation Agency's Program Management Division head D.A.
Rini said.

Although the project has yet to commence, the Indonesian Land
Transportation Owners' Association (Organda)'s Jakarta chapter
head Aip Syaifuddin rejected the project if it would cause losses
to his association's members.

"If some of our bus routes are going to be taken over by the
project, we will reject it," Aip told reporters at City Hall.

However, he praised the new system for instituting a monthly
fixed salary for drivers. The current system requires the drivers
to pay a daily rental fee, thus causing their daily income to
fluctuate according to the number of passengers they carry per
day.

As a result, drivers are inclined to take on as many
passengers as possible and to drive recklessly without paying
attention to traffic signs and passenger safety.