City cancels plan to relocate gas stations

JAKARTA (JP): The administration has canceled its plan to relocate 33 gas stations from green areas in the city and has decided to let the gas stations continue operating in the 50,000 square meters of supposedly green area.

Hadimartono, the head of the city's traffic management department, said yesterday that the state-owned oil company Pertamina had submitted objections to the administration's plan, as had the owners of the gas stations.

The objections emerged after the administration announced last March its plan to relocate three gas stations standing on green areas on Jl. Musi and Jl. Lapangan Banteng, Central Jakarta and Jl. Kalibesar Timur, West Jakarta. The three gas stations will be relocated by the end of this year.

"Pertamina objects to the relocation of the 33 other gas stations, fearing that the project will disrupt gas supply in the city. And the owners say their huge investment is behind their objections," he said.

As a consequence of the cancellation, the administration will now ask the owners of the 33 gas stations to additionally offer compressed natural gas, to help curb pollution in the city.

Hadimartono said the gas station relocation program is part of the langit biru (blue sky) project, which along with another scheme is aimed at decreasing air pollution in Jakarta.

For example, a gas station with four gasoline and diesel fuel pumps will be required to make two of them compressed gas pumps.

He said that providing more gas fuel pumps should promote the use of the fuel which causes less pollution than gasoline or diesel.

Hadimartono said that the use of gas-fueled vehicles has yet to take off among private drivers as they find it difficult to get the fuel.

"Currently, not all gas stations provide gas," he said, adding that there are a total of 160 gas stations in the city.

On account of this only a small number of vehicles, mostly taxis, run on the fuel.

The administration has vowed to return green areas used for other purposes to a more natural function. The decision to let the 33 gas stations remain on the green areas is, therefore, against the administration's program to make the city greener.

Only 10 percent of the city, that covers a total of 65,000 hectares now consists of green areas.

The administration has set itself the target of increasing the size of the green areas to 19,500 hectares, or 30 percent of the city. (yns)