Japan tries to help Jakarta solve its problems

Japan tries to help Jakarta solve its problems

Novan Iman Santosa, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Jakarta has since Independence been considered an overcrowded
city with about 8.3 million registered residents and slum
neighborhoods found in every nook and cranny of the 650-square-
kilometer capital city, but finally one group from Japan is
trying to alleviate the problem.

The number of inhabitants increases during the day by several
million people from the surrounding cities flocking into the city
for work.

Anybody living in Greater Jakarta has to endure daily
headaches when moving from one place to another and few, if any,
are spared from the problem.

Those who have to take public transportation certainly suffer
the most, as they have to rely on overcrowded trains and
deteriorating buses.

Residents with their own cars are no exceptions as they have
to spend hours each day in traffic jams.

However, Jakarta can still grow in population if there is an
emphasis on high-rise buildings and orderly coordination of the
city managers, like other Asian metropolises, such as Seoul,
Tokyo or Singapore, according to a report by a Japanese
government aid organization.

With a smaller total area, 605 square kilometers, Seoul still
has a larger population, over 10 million, despite its hilly
topography against Jakarta's flat topography, due to an extensive
use of high-rise residences.

Despite its higher population density, Seoul still has a great
many more open public spaces than Jakarta, such as gardens and
parks.

Jakarta, however, has not focused on a vertical development.

"We only make recommendations to land owners to build
vertically, especially for housing. We, however, provide several
incentives to boost such vertical development," Gamal Sinurat,
head of the City Planning Agency for Master Plan Evaluation, told
The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

"It is up to the land owners to decide although we provide
several incentives. The 2010 City Master Plan only sets the
vertical development in certain business areas," he reiterated,
while failing to reveal what sorts of incentives were offered.

Gamal said the business districts included, among others, the
corridor spanning from Jl. Sudirman in South Jakarta to Jl. MH
Thamrin in Central Jakarta, the nearby Semanggi Central Business
District (SCBD), the Golden Triangle area which bordered by Jl.
Sudirman, Jl. Gatot Subroto and Jl. HR Rasuna Said, and the
corridor of Jl. HR Rasuna Said itself.

Separately, head of the City Housing Agency, Jaender Sagala
said his agency was focusing its efforts on residents from lower
income brackets by providing low-cost rental flat units.

"We have yet to be able to provide basic flats for residents
from middle-income groups. The city administration's financial
condition is very limited.

"Besides, there are so many private developers who offer
various types of housing for the middle and upper income groups."

The neccessity of having a more vertically-developed Jakarta
was among the recommendations included in the Study on Integrated
Transportation Master Plan for Greater Jakarta (SITRAMP) which
hints that better urban design and regional planning approaches
were needed to solve transportation problems in a more
comprehensive way.

"There should be an integration between land use and
transportation systems. Highly dense land development is required
to promote public transportation use," study team leader,
Tomokazu Wachi, said in the study report.

"High floor area ratios should be given to the surrounding
areas of railway stations and bus terminals," he added.

The study was conducted by the Japan International Cooperation
Agency (JICA) to formulate a transportation master plan for
Greater Jakarta by March 2004.

It also revealed that in just 10 years the population had
grown very rapidly. There has been a nearly 10-fold increase of
commuters here from the surrounding cities and regencies between
1985 and 2002.

There were only 76,300 trips made when the first SITRAMP's
survey was conducted in 1985 compared to 716,000 trips during the
second survey last year.

According to the study, there are over 21 million residents
living in Greater Jakarta.