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.