Greater Jakarta transport needs coordination
Greater Jakarta transport needs coordination
Tantri Yuliandini and Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post,
Jakarta
The failure of coordination between authorities in Jakarta and
those in the outlaying areas of Bogor, Tangerang and Bekasi has
contributed to the chaotic transportation system in Greater
Jakarta.
The Agency for the Cooperation of Development (BKSP) has been
around since 1976, but the agency -- jointly led by governors of
Jakarta and West Java -- apparently does not function well.
The establishment of Banten province, which covers Tangerang
regency, complicates coordination, and therefore the agency will
be restructured soon to accommodate the change.
A senior staff member at the agency told The Jakarta Post on
Tuesday that the main function of the office was simply to
present recommendations for Jakarta and regencies in surrounding
areas as well as facilitate meetings between them.
"We just give recommendations, and do not have the authority
to enforce our recommendations. And we also set up meetings
between the two provinces, but the decision is up to them," said
the staff member, who refused to be named.
She added that sometimes it was difficult for the agency to
even organize discussions between two provinces.
"We play our part merely as a mediator, but you know that
leaders' egos sometimes prevent them from finding the best way to
solve the problems in Greater Jakarta," she said.
The agency is manned by 54 people, with a three-echelon staff
member as its head.
Its spacious third-floor office in Sunter, North Jakarta, was
quiet on Tuesday morning, with only a few of the 54 people
working at their desks.
Not one computer was to be seen, instead the sound of a
typewriter being used could be heard in the distance.
On the walls various data, pictures of the areas and
information were placed. However, most were outdated.
The agency was established as a forum of coordination in the
city's planning following the influx of people moving to Jakarta
that forced former Jakarta governor Ali Sadikin to adopt a policy
to move residential areas away from the city center to Bekasi in
the east and Tangerang in the west.
An urban planning expert from West Jakarta's Tarumanegara
University, Darrundono, explained: "The idea was for the
development of the Botabek (Bogor, Tangerang and Bekasi) area to
support the capital and minimize urbanization."
Unfortunately, this plan was not followed by better
arrangements to integrate the transportation network between
Jakarta and Botabek, so that as more and more people move to the
outskirts to live, traffic between the capital and outlying areas
becomes congested during rush hours.
More than 11 million people can be found in the city during
the day, while at night the number dwindles to about eight
million, according to the Jakarta Bureau of Statistics.
In making its master plan, the Jakarta administration did
recognize the need to coordinate with West Java on building a
better transportation network.
"The source of transportation problems in Jabotabek (Jakarta
and Botabek) centers around the lack of integration between the
development of residential and industrial areas in Botabek with
that of transportation, institutions and weak coordination of
macro, sub-macro and local transportation," the administration
said in its plan for Jakarta 2010.
It further admitted that coordination between government
institutions involved in the development of transportation at
various levels were lacking.
Darrundono therefore suggested that the Jakarta administration
take a lead in building better cooperation with authorities in
the surrounding areas by removing bureaucratic barriers.
"The problem is that urban planning in Jakarta is a matter of
bureaucratic planning, depending on the wishes of the ruler.
"It must be changed. Urban planning should be an advocacy
planning and take into account the city's development and
expansion into outlaying areas," Darrundono said.