City plans to provide buses for schoolkids
City plans to provide buses for schoolkids
Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Good news has been proclaimed for students here, who often find
it difficult to catch public buses, because the Jakarta
administration has announced a new school bus system, free of
charge for next year.
"Those school buses will be available for free ... so please,
do not vandalize them by scribbling, let alone damage the buses,"
Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso said on Monday at City Hall.
Sutiyoso said that his administration had allocated Rp 22
billion for the procurement of the yellow buses in the 2006 city
budget.
The city council is currently deliberating Jakarta's 2006
budget, which is expected to take into effect on Jan. 1.
Sutiyoso did not give the exact date when the school buses
would start operating.
"We will provide the first 33 school buses next year. But,
those buses will only cater to the transportation needs of junior
high school and high school students," City Transportation Agency
head Nurrachman said.
Nurrachman declined to reveal the exact date of the project
launch.
"The school buses will connect some residential areas to areas
where many schools are situated," he said.
He said that his agency was cooperating with the City
Elementary Education Agency to better reach out the needy
students.
"We'll launch this program amid mounting complaints that
regular public buses often refuse to take them (students) owing
to the lower student fares they pay," he said.
Before the October 2005 bus fare increase to Rp 1,000,
students only paid Rp 500, far lower than between Rp 1,200 and Rp
2,500 paid by other passengers.
Such a difference makes most buses reluctant to take students
along and therefore many students often resort to risking their
lives by getting hopping into open trucks for rides.
Jakarta traffic police have warned of rising trend of traffic
accidents on city streets, in which more children are getting
injured or killed. According to police data issued last year,
there were about 350 traffic accidents a month in the capital, 20
percent of which involved children.
A total of 1,146 people died in traffic accidents last year,
up from 503 people in 2003. The number of serious injuries also
rose from 665 people in 2003 to 2,632 in 2004.
The latest data for 2005 has not been made available yet.
Nurrachman added that for the first stage, the administration
would provide school buses for five selected routes.
The buses would be operational from 5 a.m. to 6:30 a.m. in the
morning, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.