City promises to reevaluate new AC bus fare
City promises to reevaluate new AC bus fare
JAKARTA (JP): The city administration promises to reevaluate
implementation of the new air-conditioned express bus fare in
order to avoid creating unrest, Governor Surjadi Soedirdja says.
Surjadi said yesterday that he had ordered the deputy for
economic and development affairs to reevaluate the process --
conducted by the Organization of Land Transport Owners (Organda)
-- of the new fare's implementation, which began Saturday.
"We are going to explain to the public the whole fare increase
process in order to avoid any misunderstandings among the
public," Surjadi said.
He said that the organization should have discussed the new
rate's application date with the city administration, although
this was not required by any regulations.
Organda introduced the new fare -- Rp 1,800 (78 U.S. cents) --
for AC buses on Saturday without any official announcement. The
only 'announcement' was the new fare stickers the organization
placed on buses' windshields.
The organization said the Rp 500 increase was legal, as the
city administration had approved its proposal.
The new fare apparently surprised passengers, who complained
that it was too high.
A councilor also criticized the policy, saying it was improper
that the city administration did not inform the city council
about the approval. This makes the approval unofficial, he said.
Tb. M. Rais, deputy governor for economic and development
affairs, said that he was also surprised that the organization
had already imposed the new fare without prior announcement.
"Publicizing the increase is the most important issue in this
case, and it takes time to properly explain the policy to the
people. Publicizing cannot be done through stickers," Rais said.
Meanwhile, the governor also said that the city administration
had never planned to eliminate bemo, three-wheeled motorized
public transportation, from the city's streets.
"Our policy is not to eliminate bemo, but we plan to replace
the vehicles gradually by waiting for bemo to phase out
naturally," he said.
"Therefore it is illogical for the city administration to pay
any compensation to bemo owners," he said.
The process will take time, because Indonesians are very
clever in modifying and fixing aging vehicles like bemo, he said.
When asked about his decree on a type of vehicle to replace
bemo, the governor said that it's still a proposal and the city
administration has not yet decided on anything.
On Monday, about 50 bemo drivers came, for the second time, to
the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute yesterday to seek legal
assistance to counter the administration's policy to eliminate
bemo .
The owners wanted the down payments for the new vehicles to be
eliminated. They also wanted as low as possible monthly
installments for the new vehicles, and asked that the new
vehicles be priced according to rates for commercial purposes,
which are lower than for private use. (yns)