Growth of satellite cities blamed for traffic woes

JAKARTA (JP): The rapid growth of Greater Jakarta's satellite cities has exacerbated the capital's already-chaotic traffic problems, Governor Surjadi Soedirdja said yesterday.

"Many people who live in the satellite cities but are still working in Jakarta have to commute to their offices every day," Surjadi said at the inauguration of five flyovers and an underpass.

The new flyovers are located on Jl. K.S. Tubun, Jl. Cideng, Jl. Karet and Jl. Pramuka in Central Jakarta and on Jl. Lapangan Roos in South Jakarta. The underpass goes beneath Jl. Fachrudin in Tanah Abang, Central Jakarta.

Surjadi said the city's night-time population is estimated at nine million people. "But during the day there is an addition of about two million people," he said.

He attributed the chaotic traffic mainly to the increasing number of private cars crawling the city's streets, adding that road construction was unable to match the increase.

The situation is also deteriorating because of the encroachment of sidewalk vendors onto roads and people's reluctance to use public transportation, he said.

Critics, however, cite the lack of integrated planning in the development of satellite cities as being a more significant reason for the traffic chaos.

They underline the importance of integrating planning strategies with the main infrastructure development programs in the development of the satellite cities.

Surjadi said the municipality was unstinting in its efforts to help solve the congestion, including by constructing more flyovers and underpasses.

"The construction of the new flyovers and underpasses, however, can't completely solve traffic problems. They can only reduce the long lines of vehicles during traffic jams," Surjadi said.

Surjadi said yesterday that the construction of the K.S. Tubun and Cideng flyovers cost Rp 21.1 billion (US$8.5 million) and Rp 20.8 billion respectively.

The construction of the Fachrudin underpass cost Rp 13.5 billion, the Karet flyover Rp 16.8 billion, the Lapangan Roos flyover Rp 14.4 billion and the Pramuka flyover Rp 9 billion. All the projects were financed by the municipality.

The head of the City Public Works Agency, Soeharto, said that four out of the six projects were intended to ease traffic jams around the Tanah Abang market, one of the city's most congested areas.

"With the inauguration of the new flyovers and underpass, the Tanah Abang market is expected to be free from congestion," he said.

Improving the traffic situation in the area, he said, should be followed by consistent operations to prevent sidewalk vendors occupying the roads.

"There should be certain arrangements governing the market's activities as well. For example loading and unloading should be done at night and illegal parking be banned," Soeharto said.

Soeharto said his office had proposed the construction of 46 other flyovers and underpasses in the 1998-2003 period, after conducting studies with, among others, the City Development Planning Board and the City Land Transportation Agency.

Of the 46 proposed projects, 23 would be built by the public works agency, 11 in joint cooperation with private investors, and 12 by the Directorate General of Highways under the Ministry of Public Works.

The underpass and flyovers which were inaugurated yesterday are among the 23 built in the city's 1992-1997 plan.

The final two planned projects are scheduled to be completed in the current fiscal year. (ste)