City administration offers investors six inner-city toll road projects
City administration offers investors six inner-city toll road projects
Rendi A. Witular and Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The addition of an estimated 267 new cars a day to Jakarta's
7,634 kilometer-long web of city streets has prompted the
government to approve the city administration's proposal to build
six inner-city toll roads worth Rp 23 trillion (US$2.25 billion)
to overcome the already-congested traffic in the capital.
The 85.28-km total projects will be offered to potential
investors later this year and a seven-stage construction is
slated to start mid-2006. The projects, which would cost Rp 270
billion a kilometer per road section, are expected to complete by
end of 2008.
"The projects are part of our efforts to ease congestion in
the capital," Minister of Public Works Djoko Kirmanto said on
Monday after meeting Vice President Jusuf Kalla.
Kalla's approval clears the way for the government to declare
the planned toll roads, proposed by the city administration as
part of the national highway network. A joint team, tasked with
preparing the bidding process, will be set up soon.
With a more than 10 million population, Jakarta is facing
total gridlock by 2014 should there be no significant measures to
handle already chronic traffic congestion.
Governor Sutiyoso called on private, state and city companies
to join in the bidding for the projects.
"In the tender, we will decide which companies will serve as
the developers and operators," he said at City Hall after the
meeting.
Sutiyoso ensured prospective investors that they would not
face problems such as land acquisition for the construction since
it would be built on a two-tier construction system, which
required less space.
However, state toll road operator PT Jasa Marga president
director Syarifuddin Alambai highlighted the coordination with
other state firms as the main obstacle in the construction of the
projects.
He pointed out that work with Jasa Marga, state
telecommunication company PT Telkom and state power utility PT
Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) were needed to ensure that the
construction would not damage their underground telephone and
power networks.
"The coordination would take some," he said, adding that Jasa
Marga would also bid for the project by forming a joint-venture
company with potential investors.
The project's construction plan has already received strong
opposition from transportation observers. They said the planned
roads would only encourage more people to drive into the city and
would worsen traffic in the city center, particularly at toll
road exit and entry points.
"It will be like injecting a flood of traffic into the heart
of the city," Bambang Susantono of the Indonesia Transportation
Society (MTI) said.
Observers have repeatedly called the city administration to
improve the poor public transportation services. Jakarta already
launched its busway service, which is quite successful, but other
routes have yet to follow nearly two years after the first one
was introduced on Jan. 15 last year.
Rendi A. Witular and Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The addition of an estimated 267 new cars a day to Jakarta's
7,634 kilometer-long web of city streets has prompted the
government to approve the city administration's proposal to build
six inner-city toll roads worth Rp 23 trillion (US$2.25 billion)
to overcome the already-congested traffic in the capital.
The 85.28-km total projects will be offered to potential
investors later this year and a seven-stage construction is
slated to start mid-2006. The projects, which would cost Rp 270
billion a kilometer per road section, are expected to complete by
end of 2008.
"The projects are part of our efforts to ease congestion in
the capital," Minister of Public Works Djoko Kirmanto said on
Monday after meeting Vice President Jusuf Kalla.
Kalla's approval clears the way for the government to declare
the planned toll roads, proposed by the city administration as
part of the national highway network. A joint team, tasked with
preparing the bidding process, will be set up soon.
With a more than 10 million population, Jakarta is facing
total gridlock by 2014 should there be no significant measures to
handle already chronic traffic congestion.
Governor Sutiyoso called on private, state and city companies
to join in the bidding for the projects.
"In the tender, we will decide which companies will serve as
the developers and operators," he said at City Hall after the
meeting.
Sutiyoso ensured prospective investors that they would not
face problems such as land acquisition for the construction since
it would be built on a two-tier construction system, which
required less space.
However, state toll road operator PT Jasa Marga president
director Syarifuddin Alambai highlighted the coordination with
other state firms as the main obstacle in the construction of the
projects.
He pointed out that work with Jasa Marga, state
telecommunication company PT Telkom and state power utility PT
Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) were needed to ensure that the
construction would not damage their underground telephone and
power networks.
"The coordination would take some," he said, adding that Jasa
Marga would also bid for the project by forming a joint-venture
company with potential investors.
The project's construction plan has already received strong
opposition from transportation observers. They said the planned
roads would only encourage more people to drive into the city and
would worsen traffic in the city center, particularly at toll
road exit and entry points.
"It will be like injecting a flood of traffic into the heart
of the city," Bambang Susantono of the Indonesia Transportation
Society (MTI) said.
Observers have repeatedly called the city administration to
improve the poor public transportation services. Jakarta already
launched its busway service, which is quite successful, but other
routes have yet to follow nearly two years after the first one
was introduced on Jan. 15 last year.