Jl. Thamrin sidewalk widening project to kick off in May

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Jakarta Parks Agency announced on Friday that the sidewalk widening project along Jl. Thamrin in Central Jakarta would take place in stages beginning in May.

Sidewalks along the street will be widened from the current width of between two and 2.5 meters to between five and eight meters.

"The project is aimed at providing more room and comfortable spaces for pedestrians," said agency head Sarwo Handhayani.

The agency has allocated Rp 10 billion (US$1.2 million) for the project. It has appointed a team of experts to provide the concept and design for the widened sidewalks.

The team chairman, Mohamad Danisworo of the Bandung Institute of Technology, told The Jakarta Post by phone that the wider sidewalks would be made of concrete blocks.

"We will use concrete blocks instead of paving blocks to ensure the sidewalk remains dry (when it rains). Paving blocks would allow the sidewalks to become drenched in water, and after a certain period of time they would begin to crack and become rugged," he said.

He said greenery would be planted along the building side of the sidewalks to beautify the area.

Since the widened sidewalks will take part of the land belonging to the buildings along the road, the agency and the expert team have been negotiating with about 30 building owners.

"We managed to reach an agreement on the project with some of the building owners around the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle. That is why we are starting the project in front of the Hotel Indonesia," Danisworo said.

The agency has been lobbying building owners since last year to give part of their land for the sidewalk widening, and also to help finance the project. Many of the owners have been hesitant, citing security reasons and financial problems.

"In our original idea, we asked all of the buildings to dismantle their fences. The aim was to provide public access to private properties.

"However, we have had to compromise with the building owners and managements on their security concerns by allowing them to keep the fences," Danisworo said.

Many building owners began to fence in their properties following the bloody riots in 1998.

The city administration previously asked building owners to create landscape gardens in the areas between buildings and along the sidewalk.

Bylaw No. 7/1991 on buildings in Jakarta stipulates that fences for nonresidential buildings must be lower than 1.5 meters in height and allow the buildings to be seen from the outside.

Danisworo also said some buildings were built too close to the street and it would be impossible to widen the sidewalks in front of them, citing the United Nations Representative Office and the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology.

He named the Hotel Nikko, the Japanese Embassy and Plaza Indonesia as buildings that had been built in accordance with regulations.