Controversial busway followed by road widening

Controversial busway followed by road widening

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Playing down public criticism and without the knowledge of its
partner in the project, the Jakarta Public Works Agency will
start widening sections of Jl. Sudirman and Jl. Thamrin, Central
Jakarta, early next month to allow more space for private cars.

"The public works agency and park agency will jointly carry
out the project after the completion of the Environmental Impact
Analysis (Amdal) by an independent research team from the
University of Indonesia," said public works agency head Fodly
Misbach on Friday.

The team is expected to finish the analysis in a month.

The Rp 26.7 billion (US$3.18 million) project is scheduled for
completion in four months.

"The public works agency has allocated Rp 17.2 billion while
the park agency has allocated Rp 9.5 billion," Fodly said.

Stretching along a 6.4-kilometer corridor from the Pemuda
Statue (better known as the pizza man statue) traffic circle to
the Arjuna Wijaya Statue traffic circle, between two and 2.5
meters of the median strip dividing the fast and slow lanes will
be removed for the project.

Sixteen trees will be cut down while 128 street illumination
poles will be relocated.

Fodly said that a city bylaw stipulates that each cut tree
must be replaced with 10 seedlings, he expected that the park
agency would comply.

Park agency head Sarwo Handhayani strongly denied Fodly's
claim.

"The road widening project remains a discourse. We are still
waiting for input from the public. I don't think it will be
implemented immediately," she told The Jakarta Post by phone.

Sarwo said that the project would conflict with the reasoning
behind the busway project, which was launched on Jan. 15. The
busway is expected to encourage private car owners to switch to
public transportation.

"We need at least a year to evaluate the busway operation
before we can come up with other plans, including the plan to
widen the main thoroughfares."

Urban observers and urban planning experts have criticized the
city administration's plan to widen Jl. Sudirman and Jl. Thamrin
since the policy is inconsistent with its previous policy on the
busway.

The administration has repeatedly campaigned that the busway
and the extension of the hours of the three-in-one traffic policy
are aimed at overcoming traffic congestion.

"I don't think that busway is successful in encourage private
car owners to use public transport, particularly regarding the
absence of feeder services and parking lots at bus terminals.
That's the reason (why we should) improve our service, not only
for public transport passengers but also for private car owners,"
Fodly said.

He assured that traffic flow would be unhampered by the
roadwork, which would be restricted to the hours between 10 p.m.
and 5 a.m., including during the campaign period for the general
election.