Four new busway corridors to be built next year

Four new busway corridors to be built next year

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The city administration has proposed the construction of four new
busway corridors in next year's Rp 13.83 trillion (US$1.49
billion) budget to help ease chronic traffic congestion in the
capital.

The budget draft reveals that the City Transportation Agency
will build the fourth corridor stretching from Kebon Jeruk in
West Jakarta to Pasar Baru in Central Jakarta and the fifth
corridor is under-construction from Pulo Gebang bus terminal in
East Jakarta to the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle.

For both infrastructure constructions, the agency has
allocated Rp 1.6 billion and Rp 1.9 billion respectively.

The budget will also cover the costs of traffic management and
engineering the fourth and fifth busway routes, in which each
will allocated Rp 1 billion.

Routes for the sixth and seventh corridors were not available
but the agency has allocated Rp 3.1 billion and Rp 1.4 billion
respectively, for the two routes.

"We will start preparations on the new busway routes next year
and we will do it simultaneously with the construction of the
second and third corridors. We hope the latter can start
operations by mid 2006," the transportation agency head Rustam
Effendi Sidabutar said on Monday.

The administration is currently constructing the second
corridor from Pulogadung bus terminal in East Jakarta to the
National Monument (Monas), Central Jakarta, and the third is from
Monas to Kalideres, West Jakarta.

The agency has also proposed Rp 3.6 billion for monitoring and
controlling the busway operations and Rp 800 million for the
preparation of information technology-based busway project master
plan.

Councillors had criticized city agencies for their failure in
coordinating and arranging a comprehensive budget for the busway
project.

"That simply reflects the lingering practice of duplication in
drafting the city budget and therefore makes it prone to
irregularities," said councillor Dani Anwar of the Prosperous
Justice Party (PKS) faction.

Next year, the administration will also continue to improve
the existing busway corridor from Blok M in South Jakarta to Kota
in West Jakarta by allocating Rp 23 billion for the construction
of a pedestrian tunnel in Kota and Rp 6 billion for "the
upgrading of the busway infrastructure".