City has no plan to run PPD bus company

JAKARTA (JP): The city does not intend to take over the state- owned PPD bus company, Deputy Governor for Economic and Development Affairs Tb. M. Rais said Friday.

He was responding to former Jakarta governor Wiyogo Atmodarminto's statement that the firm's service would improve if the municipality ran it.

"Even if we wanted to take over (PPD), its conditions should be clear (to us)," Rais said.

Only 1,771 of the PPD's 2,565 buses operate. The rest have broken down.

The PPD, which is run by the Ministry of Transportation, revealed in 1995 that it lost on average Rp 810 million (then US$368,181) a year from damage to buses by students.

Wiyogo, who was governor from 1987 to 1992, accused PPD's management of being unprofessional at a city function last week. He said it was time the ministry handed over the PPD to the city according to a 1992 law on the transfer of services to local administrations.

"Based on this law, it is the municipality which should manage public transportation, including bus companies," he said.

He revealed that, during his term, the former minister of transportation, Azwar Anas, had agreed to let the municipality run the PPD.

He said he did not know why this had not happened, and urged the city to take over the company.

"This is important. It relates to the city's transportation system as a whole," Wiyogo said.

He said the municipality would not profit from running the PPD.

"But if the company was professionally managed, its losses could be reduced," Wiyogo said.

He said that better staff welfare would be part of improving the PPD's management.

"The drivers should have better salaries," Wiyogo said.

Wiyogo said the public would prefer to use PPD buses instead of private cars if the company's management and services improved.

"The municipality can manage PPD better than the ministry because it knows about transportation in its own jurisdiction," Wiyogo said.

Of the PPD's 1,771 buses servicing 79 city routes, 190 are AC limited passenger buses, 820 non-AC limited passenger buses and 761 regular buses.

Many of the buses, especially the regular Rp 300-fare buses, are little better than private-run buses.

The PPD has also come under fire for violating transport regulations during the Idul Fitri holiday exodus in February.

And the City's Land Transport Agency has since discovered that the PPD is violating regulations by operating some regular buses as limited passenger buses instead of on their proper routes. (ste)