City set to ban old vehicles from Jakarta's streets
City set to ban old vehicles from Jakarta's streets
Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
Jakarta residents may soon have to start checking the ages of
their cars -- as the city council is considering banning all
private vehicles more than 15 years old from the city as a way to
fix air pollution.
City Environmental Management Agency head Kosasih
Wirahadikusumah said on Friday the agency agreed with the vehicle
lifetime limitations because many problems could be resolved with
such a policy.
"Such a policy would be good, not only for the clean air
campaign, but also for easing chaotic traffic congestion in the
city," Kosasih said at the council's deliberation of the draft
bylaw on air pollution.
The council's Commission A for legal and administrative
affairs on Tuesday proposed limiting of vehicle lifetimes -- to
10 years for all public transport and to 15 years for private
vehicles.
In its attempt to try and clean up the city's air quality,
which often measures up to five times higher than maximum
international safety levels, it has tried to insert several
rulings into the draft bylaw, including obligatory emission
testing for all vehicles and the use of compressed natural gas
(CNG) rather than petrol for all vehicles in the city.
Commission A spokesman Muhammad Arifin said the city
administration should eventually require all vehicles to use gas
rather than petrol, while Commission D for development affairs
spokesman Abdul Ghoni argued all public transport should be
immediately required to use the fuel.
Environmentalists have said that a reduction in vehicular
emissions is urgent because they contribute around 70 percent of
the air pollution in the city.
Natural gas is cheaper and less polluting than standard
gasoline.
Kosasih said limiting vehicle lifetimes would also work to
reduce the number of the cars in the city.
"As we know, traffic congestion in the city is caused by the
continuing increase in the numbers of private vehicles," he said.
Based on the data from the City Communications Agency, the
number of vehicles in the city reached some 4.2 million, with
annual growth last year of 11 percent.
Roads, meanwhile, have grown by about 2 percent a year in
Jakarta.
Kosasih said the council was currently discussing a possible
memorandum of understanding with state oil and gas company
Pertamina and state gas supplier PGN.
"The MOU is important to ensure that there will be an adequate
supply of gas to the city," he said, adding that buses to operate
along the busway corridor from Pulo Gadung in East Jakarta to
Kali Deres in West Jakarta would use gas as their fuel.
The move would be followed by the use of gas by all other
public transport vehicles owned or managed by the city
administration, he said.