City planning facelift to improve Kota image
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.