City cancels plan to relocate gas stations
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)