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 However, most were outdated.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.