Planned integrated ducting system gains support

JAKARTA (JP): A councilor has hailed the city public works office' plan to build an integrated ducting system for underground utilities: including water, sewerage and gas pipes and telephone and electricity cables.

Lukman F. Mokoginta, member of City Council Commission D for development affairs, said yesterday it was time that Jakarta had an integrated underground system although it was expensive.

"I know the project will cost a huge amount of money. However the integrated system will be very useful in the future. There will be more serious problems relating to underground utilities if such an integrated system is not built now," he said.

A master plan for the integrated ducting system for Greater Jakarta is needed, he said.

Lukman said that each agency had its own plans for underground utilities, and that they did not coordinate them before implementing their projects, causing problems.

Lukman said the existing underground utilities would have to be demolished, disrupting traffic and damaging sidewalks, before a new, integrated system could be built.

He said it would also be expensive to appropriate land for the new utilities. The new ducts would have to be very large because the water, gas and sewage pipes and telephone and electricity cables would all run through them, he said.

The head of city public works office, Soeharto, announced the plan on Tuesday, but said that detailed planning was still underway.

Levies

Lukman said the ducting system could be funded by imposing levies on the agencies using it: "A provincial decree instructing all companies and agencies dealing with underground services to use the duct would therefore preserve the investment."

"We are still studying the plan and hopefully the project can start soon," he said.

Last year, Soeharto said that developing such a system was estimated to cost around 60 percent of the public works' total budget.

On Monday, the deputy governor for economic and development affairs, Tb. M. Rais, said a better underground utility system was needed to preserve the environment.

Jakarta is notorious for its messy underground utilities. Sidewalks are often torn up to repair water pipes and install telephone cables and other utilities. Pedestrians and motorists in Jakarta frequently bemoan this. (yns)