Officers tirelessly guard Busway lane day and night
Urip Hudiono, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
To ensure that the Busway runs smoothly in its exclusive lane, more than 2,000 officers from the Jakarta Transportation Agency and the TransJakarta Busway are on guard every day at 14 critical points where the lane intersects with regular traffic.
"It's very tiring. We have to guard the intersections all day long, from morning to night," an officer from the transportation agency, who was regulating traffic at a U-turn near Plaza Glodok, West Jakarta, said on Wednesday.
Usually working in groups of three, about 100 officers of the agency work non-stop from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. in a single shift, taking turns with their colleagues only for meal breaks.
The officers did not have masks to protect them from breathing in the city's heavily polluted air for 15 hours straight.
On the other hand, officers from the TransJakarta Busway are fortunate enough to have three shifts -- from 5 a.m. to 1 p.m., 1 p.m. to 10 p.m. and 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. The last shift is to guard the shelters from becoming overrun by the homeless and beggars.
The 2,098 Busway officers also rotate between regulating the buses and guarding the shelters.
The transportation agency officers said they had not received any addition to their daily allowance for the new duty, although they had hoped they would.
"We only hope our superiors at the agency consider giving us some extra stipend," said an officer, guarding a U-turn near the Busway shelter on Jl. Medan Merdeka Barat.
The officers receive an average salary of Rp 750,000 (US$89) a month, and had no idea how long they would be stationed at the Busway intersections.
"We don't know... Perhaps forever," one officer said.
As the Busway nears the end of its first week of operations, its drivers are struggling to deliver punctual services, while transportation agency and TransJakarta Busway officers are working long hours in less-than-desirable conditions to prevent accidents along the Busway corridor. Meanwhile, Jakarta motorists are struggling with the enforced discipline.
However, only one accident has occurred so far -- a motorcycle was hit by a Busway bus last Friday as its driver ignored a police officer's warnings and erroneously crossed into the Busway corridor. The motorcyclist and his pillion passenger suffered only minor injuries.