Pulogadung problem-ridden bus terminal to be moved

By Muninggar Sri Saraswati

JAKARTA (JP): When you arrive in Pulogadung bus terminal, East Jakarta, your first impression will be: Terrible! That is certain, no doubt about it.

The largest bus station in the city is notorious for its disorganized state and crime.

Head of Pulogadung bus station, Nadias Sjam, said that at least 1,200 city and inter-city public buses use the 3.5-hectare terminal every day. During major holidays, such as Lebaran (the Muslim holiday after Ramadhan), Christmas, and school holidays, the number can reach up to 2,000.

Drivers park their buses wherever they like, not where the management has ruled, causing traffic jams both inside and outside the terminal.

Street vendors, selling many types of good, make the condition worse. As they occupy almost half the road space, the buses can only trickle in and out of the bus terminal. With their presence, the terminal seems more like a traditional market than a bus terminal.

"We have provided space for vendors in the terminal. However, it could not accommodate all of them," he told The Jakarta Post recently, adding that the station management had tried to keep them in order, but they refused to comply with the regulations.

Nadias said the disorganization partly resulted from the fact that the terminal could no longer accommodate the buses.

"More than 700 buses from towns in Java, Sumatra, Bali and West Nusa Tenggara, and over 500 public city buses here use the terminal every day," he said.

The situation now is very different from when it was first opened in 1976. Nadias claimed that there were only several houses in the terminal's surroundings at that time, but now it is surrounded by many housing and industrial areas.

"The more housing complexes are built around here, the more crowded this terminal becomes," he told the Post.

"Passengers are not disciplined either. If they stopped taking buses from outside the terminal, I believe drivers would stop looking for passengers there," he remarked.

Street vendor Bahtiar insisted that street vendors were not the only factor causing the disorganization.

"I think bus stations are always disorganized everywhere in this country, so what's the big deal?" said Bahtiar, who claimed that he had been selling goods there for more than five years.

Bahtiar, who sells clothes, refused to move since he could attract more customers by selling goods outside the station than inside.

"Look, most of the drivers park their buses outside here as well to get additional passengers," he remarked, adding that such behavior had worsened the traffic jams.

Simarmata, a driver of a bus plying the Jakarta-Lampung route, blamed the city administration for constructing only two-lane terminal roads. He also claimed that the roads themselves were too narrow.

"We stop here only for a moment, just in case there are still passengers who want to travel on our buses," he said.

Meanwhile, a passenger said that he would take a bus outside if possible as those waiting outside would depart sooner than those inside the terminal.

"When a bus parks outside, it means it will depart soon," Alfons, who was about to go to Bima in Sumbawa, West Nusa Tenggara, told the Post.

Nadias admitted that the crime rate was also high in the terminal. "But crimes occur mostly at peak times, such as during Lebaran or Christmas," he remarked.

Data from Pulogadung police station reveals that the number of crimes can reach more than 35 cases per day, including pickpocketing and swindling. But most complaints are about pickpocketing.

Wawan, a street vendor, said that crimes had become part of the station's daily life. "Hoodlums can be found in almost every part of the station," he said.

He said criminals victimized not only passengers as they also affected vendors like him. "I have to pay (an illegal levy of) some Rp 1,500 (US 18 cents) per day to hoodlums, while drivers pay Rp 500," he explained.

Given such a state of affairs, the city administration plans to relocate the bus terminal to Pulogebang, about 10 kilometers to the east, hoping that it can eliminate all the problems. Will it succeed?

Analysts have warned that relocating will only end up creating the same problems in a different place.