City to keep to minimum toll road entry, exit gates

City to keep to minimum toll road entry, exit gates

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

To prevent even worse traffic chaos along the trajectories of a
number of planned new inner-city toll roads, the Jakarta
administration says it intends to keep the number of entry and
exit points to the roads to a minimum.

"The idea of expressways is that they should be free of
obstructions from point A to point B. That's why we have to
reduce the number of entry and exit points. This is based on our
experience with existing toll roads, where long lines of vehicles
at the gates are common," Jakarta Deputy Governor Fauzi Bowo said
over the weekend.

He added that the expressway projects would also involve the
construction of alternative roads for public transportation and
those who did not want to pay tolls.

Meanwhile, Hari Sandjojo, the development affairs assistant to
the city secretary, said that the administration would prioritize
the construction of toll roads from Bekasi to Kampung Melayu in
East Jakarta and from Kampung Melayu to Kemayoran in Central
Jakarta early next year.

The 14.36-kilometer Bekasi-Kampung Melayu route will cost Rp
3.6 trillion, while the nine-kilometer expressway from Kampung
Melayu to Kemayoran will cost Rp 2.7 trillion.

"PT Jakarta Propertindo is preparing a feasibility study for
the projects to see whether they are in line with the city's
master plan on transportation, and whether they make economic
sense," he added.

PT Jakarta Propertindo, which first suggested the projects,
has been appointed as the main developer. It is expected that the
new roads will be mostly elevated.

The administration said that it was confident the projects
would be attractive to investors as they promised an internal
rate of return (IRR) of 17.5 percent per annum.

Currently, interest on bank loans for infrastructure projects
ranges between 12 percent and 17 percent.

According to Hari, the administration was now awaiting a
response from the central government to the request it had made
to be permitted to build and manage the toll roads as under the
legislation as it stands at the moment, the authority to develop
toll roads is vested in the Ministry of Public Works.

The developer's president director, IGKG Suena, told The
Jakarta Post that his company would start construction work in
March next year if all the necessary approvals were obtained.

A total of six new expressways are envisaged at a cost of Rp
23 trillion, or Rp 270 billion per kilometer, and they will be
constructed in seven stages. It is hoped that all the projects
will be completed by 2009.

The administration has said that traffic in the capital would
end up in complete gridlock by 2014 should steps not be taken
immediately to solve the problem.

Governor Sutiyoso has blamed an average annual 8 percent
growth in new cars as the cause of the worsening traffic chaos.

However, his administration has done little to date to curb
the rapid increase in vehicle ownership.

Meanwhile, the police have suggested the imposing of a ban on
older vehicles in the city.

Currently, Jakarta's roads, which extend to 7,634 kilometers
in length, must accommodate 6.4 million vehicles. This figure
does not include out-of-town vehicles entering the capital.
Experts says the city's roads are only capable of accommodating
3.5 million vehicles.