Jakarta authorities told to reroute the new busway
Jakarta authorities told to reroute the new busway
Damar Harsanto, Jakarta
Amid concern that many trees would be cut to make way for the new
busway corridor, a transportation expert of the Bandung Institute
of Technology (ITB) urged the Jakarta administration to seek an
alternative route to minimize the number of trees removed.
"If the planned route, which aims to improve the city's
transportation system, causes major damages to other sectors,
then the plan is not feasible. It would be better for the
administration to seek an alternative," Ofyar Z. Tamin told The
Jakarta Post by phone.
Ofyar was commenting on the administration's plan to cut down
around 1,600 trees along the 33-kilometer corridor from Kalideres
in West Jakarta to Pulogadung in East Jakarta.
According to him, the felling of trees for the project must be
minimal.
"At times, it is unavoidable to cut down trees, specially when
we face technical problems in the field. But the administration
must guarantee that each tree felled is replaced with a new one,"
he said.
Jakarta Parks Agency's green area division head Mochamad
Setyadi, however, estimated that only 230 trees would be cut down
to make way for the new busway corridor.
"We will try to move the rest of the trees to other locations
nearby. We are trying to see if we can uproot a big tree without
killing it," he said.
Assistant to the city secretary for development affairs IGKG
Suena promised that the administration would replace each tree it
felled with 10 new ones.
"We will move the small trees to other places, if we can," he
told the Post, without giving details.
The administration was criticized for cutting several trees on
the median strips for the construction of the first 12.9-
kilometer busway corridor from Blok M in South Jakarta to Kota in
West Jakarta. No progress report was available to determine
whether the administration had planted new trees to replace the
ones it cut down.
The Jakarta Public Works Agency had earlier planned to widen
the fast lanes of Jl. Jend. Sudirman and Jl. M.H. Thamrin to
create an additional lane for private cars as one of the lanes
was taken over by the busway. The plan was dropped as the project
would involve uprooting 16 trees, 128 street light poles and 137
traffic light control boxes.
The administration has estimated that the infrastructure for
the construction of the new busway corridor would cost up to Rp
600 billion (US$64.5 million). The hefty figure excludes the cost
of the new buses that are expected to cost around Rp 1 billion
each -- more expensive than the first busway buses which were Rp
830 million each.
Aside from the expansion to the busway network, the
administration will also initiate a monorail project this year to
help ease chronic traffic congestion in the city and encourage
motorists to switch to public transportation.