Jakarta to introduce new parking system

Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The city administration will introduce on a limited basis next month a new on-street parking system that will employ prepaid cards, with the goal of increasing the annually disappointing parking revenue.

The chairman of the city's parking agency, Yani Mulyadi, said on Tuesday that under the new system, which will only be applied for on-street parking, motorists will be required to give prepaid parking cards to attendants who will use portable machines to register them.

He said car owners would purchase prepaid parking cards of varying values and fees would be deducted from these cards based on how long the cars were parked. The cards will be available for purchase from head parking attendants and designated retail outlets.

"We are not changing the parking rates. It still costs Rp 1,000 (11 U.S. cents) per car per hour to park," he said.

Yani said the new system would be operated by a firm appointed by the city administration, PT Adi Wira Sembada. The company already has 200 portable electronic registers ready for use, with each machine costing Rp 17.15 million.

The new parking system will first be introduced in five locations as a pilot project. These areas are Jl. Agus Salim in Central Jakarta, Jl. Raden Patah in South Jakarta, Jl. Jatinegara Timur in East Jakarta, Jl. Bulevar Kelapa Gading in North Jakarta and Jl. Gajah Mada in West Jakarta.

These five locations are included among the 434 official on- street parking locations in the city. However, Yani said there were another 87 unofficial on-street parking areas run by thugs.

"By using modern technology we hope to minimize the corruption that has resulted in the loss of parking revenue," said Yani after demonstrating how the electronic registers work to Governor Sutiyoso at City Hall on Tuesday.

The city administration's revenue target for on-street parking has never been met, a fact non-governmental organizations blame on poor management by the parking agency.

Last year, the city administration set a revenue target of Rp 32 billion from on-street parking, but only about 40 percent of this amount, or Rp 13 billion, was collected. The administration has set the same revenue target for this year.

Asked when the new system would be fully implemented, Yani said it depended on how well the pilot project ran.