Councilors vow to fight for more funds for road repairs
JAKARTA (JP): Two senior city councilors have vowed to fight for more funds for road repairs in the capital in the 1999/2000 city budget, which starts on April 1.
Contacted separately by The Jakarta Post on Saturday, head of Commission C for city revenue Amarullah Asbah and head of Commission D for public works and development affairs Ali Wongso Sinaga insisted that the great number of potholes and other damage to roads in the capital needs urgent attention.
The two councilors pointed out that it would be appropriate to raise the amount for roadwork in the upcoming city budget, which is expected to be significantly increased.
The persistent problem of damaged roads has not only caused losses to the capital's motorists but also to the city administration.
Many motorists, for example, have had to spend extra money on vehicular damage caused by roads in a state of disrepair. And by putting off repair work, it will cost the city administration more because the damage to roads is worsened every day by the volume of traffic.
"To repair it later will of course take a lot of money. So, it's already an urgent matter that more funds be allocated for road repairs," Amarullah said, adding that the proposal is being discussed with his colleagues in the commission.
Repairing image
According to Sinaga, a serious effort on the part of the city administration to address the need to repair damaged roads is aimed at repairing its tarnished image.
Jakartans, he said, view the administration's failure to repair damaged roads as negligence.
"There's an image that the administration has no intention to repair the roads and always uses the limited budget as an excuse," Sinaga said.
"I haven't seen any road maintenance done by the city's public works agency recently. So where do the funds (from the current budget) go to?" he asked.
People, he said, understand that the current limited budget has hindered the city administration in doing big projects, such as fixing roads.
"But I think our budget is still enough for work like filling in potholes to avoid the probability of them becoming bigger," Sinaga said.
In the 1998/1999 budget, Rp 6.54 billion is allocated to road and bridge maintenance and Rp 8.92 billion for infrastructure development.
Public works agency data shows that about 600,000 square meters, or 29 percent of the 20.56 million square meters of city thoroughfares, are in disrepair.
Data from 1996 states that the city is home to 2.7 million vehicles, excluding those of the Armed Forces and diplomats. The number consists of one million motorcycles, one million private cars and 700,000 public transportation vehicles.
Among the thoroughfares which have dangerous potholes and bumps in the road include the city's main streets, such as Jl. Sudirman, Jl. Imam Bonjol, Jl. H.R. Rasuna Said, Jl. M.H. Thamrin and Jl. Gatot Subroto.
Amarullah also suggested that the city administration use part of the Rp 85.95 billion flood relief program to immediately repair roads.
"It has become our habit to neglect small things. The public works agency ought to do repair work immediately after finding a road in disrepair.
"Not like now when we can see that many roads are full of potholes," he said.
Last week, deputy chairman of the Indonesian Consumers Foundation Agus Pambagio and city councilors Afif Hamka and Saud Rahman said that damaged roads were sufficient grounds to sue the administration as it is in charge of the facilities.
The idea, however, was opposed by other councilors.
"We don't need to go that far," Amarullah said. (ind)