Bogor to fell old trees to ease traffic congestion

Bogor to fell old trees to ease traffic congestion

Theresia Sufa, The Jakarta Post, Bogor

In a bid to ease the severe traffic congestion around the Plant
Conservation Center of the Bogor Botanical Gardens, the Bogor
municipal administration will cut down several old trees later
this month to build an underpass and a parking lot.

Head of the Bogor Land Transportation Agency, Dody Rosadi,
said that four 20-year-old Angsana trees, a 60-year-old Damar
(Agrathis alba) tree and a 30-year-old acacia tree would have to
be cut down to make way for the construction of a pedestrian
underpass, a parking lot for 50 buses and a gate to the gardens.

The project will cost Rp 7.6 billion (US$894,117.65) and will
be financed from the state budget.

Dody explained that the 5,000-square-meter bus parking lot
will be constructed next to a building donated by the Bogor
Institute of Agriculture (IPB) alumni association in the
Baranangsiang area.

Buses heading to the gardens will exit the toll road and head
to Jl. Pajajaran, U-turn at Tugu Kujang and drive along Jl.
Cidangiang before entering the parking lot. The buses can access
the toll road directly as Jl. Cidangiang will be widened, for
which the four Angsana trees will be felled.

As for the pedestrian underpass, the construction will start
from the IPB campus, cross Jl. Pajajaran and enter the gardens.
For this purpose, the damar and acacia trees will be cut down.

IPB students staged a protest on Friday at the campus' sports
field, protesting the project. They demanded that the
construction be halted.

IPB Students Executive Board chairman Eka Setiawan Karim said
that although the IPB management must self-finance educational
activities on campus, as stipulated in Government Regulation No.
154/2000 on the status of the Bogor Institute of Agriculture as a
state-owned incorporated entity, it must also take procedures and
asset usage into consideration.

Siswadi, a lecturer at the School of Mathematics and Natural
Sciences, said the institute needed Rp 18 million annually from
each student, but currently charged a tuition of only Rp 10
million per student.

"With such a deficit, must we sacrifice our campus for a
parking lot? I prefer to take my students out to sell seeds of
rare plants instead of making money from parking fees," he said.

He called on the IPB management to arrange a master plan that
was best suited to the institute's needs and make it public.

The students' protest was refuted by IPB spokesman Agus
Lelana, who said the institute would support the administration's
effort to ease congestion in the area.

"The construction of the pedestrian underpass, which will
encroach on part of the campus, will not change the campus, which
is a historical site," he said.

According to a Bogor resident, the plan would not benefit the
public in any way. Ahmad Dudung, 50, a resident of Tanah Sareal
subdistrict who passes the area on his way to work, said the
construction of a bus parking lot would only move the traffic
congestion from one place to another.

"Even without those buses during school or year-end holidays,
this area has always been congested," he said.