A subway for Jakarta
Although many details still have to be worked out, Jakarta's dream of finally getting a mass rapid transportation system to relieve it of its perennial traffic woes appears to have come a good step closer to becoming reality. As was reported, the government this week gave the Indonesian-Japanese-European Group (IJEG) consortium the go-ahead to start preparations for building the US$2.2 billion subway project, which is to link South Jakarta with the downtown Kota business district by means of a 14.5- kilometer underground railroad system.
With the official approval obtained, negotiations are now set to begin in order to work out details of the plan before actual construction takes place. If all goes according to plan, construction will begin in June and be completed by 2001, in time to add luster to the 56th anniversary celebrations of Indonesia's independence. Obviously, the news comes as a relief for the millions of Jakartans who at present suffer the daily ordeal of traffic jams or having to commute to work on the city's miserable public transportation system.
The hope now is that no further snags will hamper the project. By any measure, building a subway system for Jakarta is no small undertaking. Initial negotiations were reportedly protracted due to financing. But putting the immense cost aside, the technical problems that may arise in carrying out a project of this magnitude in an overcrowded city of more than nine million people, and one that is partly built on what used to be marshland, can only be imagined.
A complete overhaul of the city's public transportation system is the only alternative for Jakarta if it is to maintain its position as a center of administration, commerce and communication. Simply widening the roads, or even building new ones, or limiting traffic during certain hours in some areas of the city, are mere stop-gap measures that will not solve the problem in the long run, as past experience has shown.
At this stage, the authorities should start thinking about informing the public of how all this is going to affect them. The plan, for example, calls for the building of 18 stations along the 14.5-kilometer route. How is its construction going to affect buildings and structures located above them? Who is eligible for compensation in the event that land has to be appropriated? What other effects on personal comfort or daily routine can people expect? In time, such questions may well arise, although it would be premature at this stage to bother about such details.
It could be that the subway plan is not the only thing to relieve Jakarta of its traffic problems. Little has been heard lately of a plan to build a three-tiered road and elevated railway system to link South Jakarta with the Kota business district. One might wonder what the fate of this proposal could be. Certainly, if such a system could provide practical and feasible support to any of the existing systems, there is still room for it as long as the basic considerations are sound.
But the best we can do now is wait and see how things will work out and hope that a genuine solution to Jakarta's traffic problems is in sight.