No cure for traffic headaches with transit project dormant
By Stevie Emilia
JAKARTA (JP): Construction of two large-scale mass transportation projects -- a subway and a triple-tier transit system -- which are badly needed to reduce Jakarta's notorious traffic congestion, failed to be started this year as previously scheduled.
It is still unclear whether the current monetary crisis, which has put many building projects in the city on hold, will affect the two mass transportation projects as well.
If this is so, it would be to the disappointment of many Jakartans who have desperately waited for efforts to ease the existing chaotic traffic condition.
Driving in the city is a hassle. To drive a distance of only eight kilometers, which usually takes less than half an hour in relatively noncongested conditions, one needs an average of two hours during peak hours.
These traffic conditions reflect data from the municipality, which shows that there are 2,165,200 vehicles in the city with roads only totaling 5,907.95 kilometers in length.
The growth rate in the number of cars is estimated at 14 percent a year, while the length of roads is increasing at less than 4 percent annually.
Simply widening roads, constructing new ones or limiting traffic during certain hours on some roads are mere stopgap measures that will not solve the problem in the long term, as past experience has shown.
In the meantime, there is no way to stop the emergence of new satellite cities in Jakarta's neighboring towns of Bogor, Tangerang and Bekasi, which has further complicated traffic since the majority of their inhabitants commute to Jakarta to work each day.
The city now houses 9.8 million people at night and 12 million people during the day, according to the municipality's data.
Former Jakarta governor Surjadi Soedirdja, whose term of office ended in October, realized that the construction of the subway and the triple-tier transit system was vital for the city.
"The mass transportation projects are the only solution in solving the city's traffic woes," he reiterated on many occasions.
In January, he even expressed optimism that the subway project, which was initially proposed to connect Blok M in South Jakarta to Kota in West Jakarta, could start construction in April despite the absence of a presidential decree.
Such a decree is important to determine which agency would be in charge of managing the US$2.2 billion project.
The 13.5 kilometer subway will be built jointly by the municipality and a consortium of Indonesian, Japanese and European firms.
Among the Indonesian investors, led by businessman Aburizal Bakrie, are PT Bakrie Investindo, PT Lippo, PT Pembangunan Jaya, PT Bukaka/PT Kuda Perkasa, PT Suthamthabie and PT Steady Safe. The Japanese firms are led by Itochu Corp., while the European firms are led by Germany's Ferrostaal AG.
President Soeharto's son Bambang Trihatmodjo officially joined the Indonesian investors in April.
A memorandum of understanding to construct the 14-station system, which was proposed by a study team under the auspices of the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology, was signed in August 1995, while its basic design and feasibility study were completed last year.
Since Surjadi's remark in January, there has been no indication from the government as to when construction would be started.
After receiving the government's green light on the project in March, Bakrie said that the subway would be started in June. The approval was given under several conditions, including a stipulation that the government would not guarantee the loan.
June has gone by, but construction has yet to begin on the system which is designed to have a capacity of transporting 45,000 passengers per hour.
Among the reasons blamed for the project's delay was a disagreement between the municipality and the consortium regarding the subway's fares. The municipality wants fares to be set at Rp 1,800, far below the consortium's Rp 5,000 proposed fare.
Bakrie denied that the issue of the fares was the main factor hampering the project. He blamed the delay on a lack of effort by related government ministries to further discuss the project with the consortium.
Confusion over the project was further heightened in September when the consortium proposed a new subway route: from Fatmawati in South Jakarta to the National Monument (Monas) park in Central Jakarta.
The consortium's new proposal was made because its first designated route, from Blok M to Kota, would overlap with the planned triple-tier transit system, which would connect Bintaro in South Jakarta to Kota.
Since then, little was heard about the subway until the new governor, Sutiyoso, announced last month that the project would be constructed next year. But he failed to mention whether the municipality had accepted the consortium's proposed new routes and its Rp 5,000 fare.
However, it was clear that Sutiyoso shared Surjadi's opinion that the subway was vital in solving the city's chaotic traffic condition.
Triple-tier system
The other mass transportation project is the triple-tier transit system which would combine an elevated toll road, light- rail transit line and artery roads.
Like the subway project, the system's construction has been delayed several times.
In February, the head of the Rp 6.05 trillion project, Bambang Soeroso, said construction was expected to be started in June, but he announced in April that its groundbreaking would be held in December.
Last month, Bambang announce a new schedule saying that construction would be delayed for another two months because the company faced difficulty in finding workers ahead of the Idul Fitri holiday.
The system will be built by a joint-venture company, PT Citramoda Margakencana Persada, comprising PT Citra Lamtoro Gung Persada -- owned by President Soeharto's daughter Mrs. Siti Hardiyanti Rukmana -- along with state-owned railway company Perumka and the state-owned highway corporation PT Jasa Marga.
The company proposed a Rp 1,800 fare for the light rail transit system and a Rp 6,500 to Rp 10,000 price for the toll road. It also requested a concession period of 50 years, excluding the four-year construction time. The system is expected to begin operating by 2001.
Under the plan, the project would build 23.65 kilometers of toll road and 22 kilometers of light rail with 20 stops: four main stations and 16 secondary stations. The four main stations would be in Ulujami, Kebayoran Lama, Blok M -- all in South Jakarta -- and Kota.
The light rail transit line, which would have two routes: Bintaro-Kebayoran Lama-Kota and Bintaro-Kebayoran Lama-Blok M- Kebayoran Lama-Kota, is designed to have a capacity of carrying 12,000 passengers an hour.
On top of the unclear construction schedule of the two projects, the municipality and the consortium has yet to report how they planned to explain the projects to those affected by construction.
There also has been no explanation as to how the construction of both projects would affect buildings and structures along and above the transportation systems. No maps of the subway system have yet been made public to support the project, along with information on the construction's impact on traffic flows.
By any measure, building both a subway and a transit system is not a small undertaking. The best we can do now is wait and see how things will work.
But, as soon as we are trapped in the city's chaotic traffic jams, or squashed cheek to cheek with others on hot public buses, no doubt we will wish that the plans to build these mass transportation projects will come to fruition.