City to take fast lane building busway corridors
Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The Jakarta administration will speed up the development of all 15 planned busway corridors so that they are completed by 2007.
"I want to accelerate the development of busway projects so that residents who live on the outskirts of Jakarta can also enjoy better public transport services," Governor Sutiyoso said at City Hall.
Sutiyoso said the administration will now develop four busway corridors annually instead of the planned two corridors.
"Hopefully, we will be able revise our target of 15 corridors by 2010 to 2007," he said.
Sutiyoso's second term will end in 2007.
The city budget stands at Rp 14 trillion this year, Rp 600 billion of which has been allocated to build two busway routes from Pulogadung in East Jakarta to Harmoni in Central Jakarta and from Harmoni to Kalideres in West Jakarta.
The second busway corridor is expected to be operational in October this year.
The City Transportation Agency has allocated at least Rp 10 billion to prepare the planning of the infrastructure, traffic management and civil engineering in the fourth to seventh busway routes.
It was also provided Rp 3.6 billion in the 2005 budget to create a system to monitor and control the operation of the entire busway project.
The administration launched the first busway corridor stretching from Blok M in South Jakarta to Kota in West Jakarta in mid-January last year.
The administration has also earmarked Rp 23 billion for the construction of a pedestrian tunnel in Kota and another Rp 6 billion to upgrade busway infrastructure.
The busway system is one of four public transport systems to be developed in the city, the others being the Mass Rapid Transit system (MRT, or subway), the Light Rapid Transit (LRT, or monorail) system, and river transportation.
The ambitious MRT project, to cost more than US$767 million and financed through foreign soft loans, is currently being discussed in the National Development Planning Board.
Meanwhile, the $650 million monorail project is under construction by a consortium of local and foreign companies. A part of the monorail project is slated to be finalized by the end of 2006.