City planning facelift to improve Kota image

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Jakarta administration revealed on Monday that it was finalizing a draft blueprint for development in Kota, West Jakarta, as part of efforts to revive the historic downtown area as a commercial area and a tourism destination.

"We are preparing the urban design guidelines, especially on traffic management since we have learned that heavy traffic there is the main impediment to the revival of the area into a commercial district," Jakarta Deputy Governor Fauzi Bowo told The Jakarta Post.

Fauzi said a survey last year showed there were on average 2,400 vehicles an hour crisscrossing Kota's narrow road network, resulting in chronic congestion.

He said the blueprint was now being discussed by a team at the City Spatial Agency.

Without any fundamental improvements in traffic management, Fauzi said, any attempt to revitalize Kota would falter.

He added that the managements of commercial premises, including Mangga Dua and Pinangsia electronics centers, would be required to help finance the project.

"The administration alone will not be able to finance the whole cost of improvements to the area," he said.

The improving traffic in Kota would also include relocating Kota railway station.

"Kota Station will be relocated to another place so that the traffic burden in the area will be relieved, while the old station would be used for other purposes, including an exclusive tourist shopping center," he said.

City Spatial Agency head Nurfakih Wirawan said the administration planned to widen roads encircling the area, steering through traffic away from the narrow central streets.

"We have no choice but to preserve existing roads where most heritage buildings are located. Instead, we can widen alternative roads, while preventing motorists who just want to drive through the area from taking other roads," he told the Post.

"Hopefully, we can finish the master plan by the end of this year," he added.

The implementation of the blueprint, he said, would be in the hands of the West Jakarta municipality.

In another effort to solve the traffic problem, the West Jakarta administration is negotiating with more than 1,500 street vendors in Glodok about a plan to relocate them to nearby traditional markets.

West Jakarta Mayor Fajar A Panjaitan said the relocation was necessary since street vendors had taken over road shoulders and pavements, partially blocking roads and causing more jams.

The municipality was cooperating with city market operator PD Pasar Jaya to prepare space for the vendors in nearby markets, including Perniagaan and Glodok, Fajar said.

Under Dutch colonial rule, Kota was the city center for business, commerce and cultural activities.

The area is now in disrepair, notorious as a red-light district, with many poorly maintained heritage buildings, traffic jams and urban slums on heavily polluted rivers.