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.