City digging deep for busways

City digging deep for busways

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The ambitious idea of Governor Sutiyoso to provide the city with
12 more busway corridors by 2007, when his term comes to an end,
has kept his subordinates busy finding funding sources.

The City Planning Agency is now tasked with reevaluating the
cash-strapped budget to collect any penny available to finance
the busway's fast-track scheme.

"We are also responsible for finding alternative financing
sources," a senior official with the agency, who asked to remain
anonymous, told The Jakarta Post over the weekend.

Jakarta Public Works Agency head Fodly Misbach calculated that
the project would require between Rp 2.5 trillion and Rp 3
trillion in investment.

"The acceleration of the busway project will only be feasible
if private investors are involved. The administration would pay
them back later in installments," he said.

Jakarta's 2005 city budget hovers at Rp 14 trillion.

The administration has allocated Rp 600 billion of its budget
for establishing two busway corridors, which will connect
Pulogadung in East Jakarta with Harmoni in Central Jakarta and
Harmoni with Kalideres in West Jakarta. Both corridors are slated
to become operational in October.

The administration spent at least Rp 240 billion to build the
first busway corridor from Blok M in South Jakarta to Kota in
West Jakarta early last year.

A copy of a meeting schedule made available to the Post shows
that several city agencies, coordinated by the Jakarta Urban
Infrastructure Development Office (ASP), are discussing the
acceleration program.

According to the notes, ASP is also assigned to follow up the
administration's plan to use compressed natural gas (CNG)-fueled
busway buses.

While the officials were trying to make ends meet, Deputy
Governor Fauzi Bowo expressed skepticism that the program would
be successful, highlighting the absence of a feeder system in the
existing busway lines.

"The success of the busway project partly depends on the
presence of a feeder system, while there is a tendency on the
part of the Jakarta Transportation Agency to give so much
attention to building the main trunk and thereby neglecting the
establishment of the feeder system," Fauzi, who holds a doctorate
in civil engineering from Kaiserlautern University of Germany,
told the Post.

"We have to keep in mind that we will only squander our money
in a project doomed to failure," he said.

Fauzi added that the administration would find it difficult to
prepare the fund for the project as well as to procure buses.