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.