More money needed for busway project

More money needed for busway project

Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

With Rp 117 billion (US$13.77 million) having already been
allocated for the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project, the City
Transportation Agency is asking for additional funds to finance a
television advertisement campaign to promote the project.

"We still need more money to promote the project through
television advertisements," the head of the agency's system
development division, D.A Rini, said, adding that the
advertisement would be produced abroad.

Rini declined to say how much additional money the agency was
seeking or in what country the advertisements would be produced.

The city administration plans to open the first 12.9-kilometer
corridor of the busway project from Blok M in South Jakarta to
Kota in West Jakarta early next year.

Some Rp 50.80 billion of the allocated Rp 117 billion will be
used to purchase 50 buses, while the remaining Rp 66.20 billion
would be used for the construction of bus shelters and the
erection of traffic signs.

The City Council also approved an additional Rp 32 billion
requested by the agency in the revised city budget endorsed last
month.

The agency said the Rp 32 billion would be used to redesign
bus shelters and construct pedestrian bridges along Jl. M.H.
Thamrin and Jl. Jend. Sudirman.

The money also will be used to develop a tracking system and
an information system to support the BRT.

The project, based on a similar project in Bogota, Columbia,
has been revised several times since it first being introduced in
late 2001.

Many observers have criticized the project, saying not only
will it not solve the city's traffic problems, but it will add to
congestion and damage the environment.

The observers say an integrated transportation system is
needed to solve Jakarta's traffic woes, not separate projects
such as the busway system.