Sutiyoso sees sunny road ahead with low-sulfur diesel
Sutiyoso sees sunny road ahead with low-sulfur diesel
Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The Jakarta administration and its private partner PT Petross
will provide low-sulfur diesel fuel for public transportation
vehicles, to reduce vehicular air pollution gradually.
"We are looking into the possibility of installing mobile fuel
pumps supplying (low-sulfur) diesel fuel at bus terminals for
public buses," Governor Sutiyoso announced at City Hall on
Tuesday after meeting with the PT Petross board of directors.
Petross is the only firm supplying diesel fuel for busway
buses. The specially designed buses need lower-sulfur diesel fuel
compared with other public buses.
The firm will supply diesel fuel with a sulfur level below 500
parts per million (ppm), much lower than Pertamina's level of
more than 3,000 ppm.
Besides bus terminals, Petross proposed the administration
also include mobile fuel pumps on Jl. Gatot Subroto and Kuningan,
South Jakarta and Jl. Teluk Betung, Central Jakarta.
Environmentalists say that exhaust emissions have contributed
to 70 percent of air pollution in the city while the remaining 30
percent was mostly industrial emissions. Public transportation
vehicles have been blamed as the major cause of air pollution
because most are not roadworthy.
A survey in 2001 by the Jakarta Environmental Management
Agency (BPLHD) showed that 77.6 percent of public transportation
and commercial vehicles in Jakarta did not pass emission tests.
The high pollution has made Jakarta the third-most polluted
city in the world after Mexico and Bangkok.
Previously, the city administration ran in 1997 a program
called Segar Jakartaku (Freshen My Jakarta) in cooperation with
Swisscontact, a non-governmental organization. The clean air
project has focused on pollution caused by public buses,
minibuses and bajaj (motorized pedicabs).
Sutiyoso said, ideally, public transportation vehicles should
use natural gas instead of diesel fuel to minimize air pollution.
"State oil company Pertamina is not yet ready to supply
natural gas to meet the city's demands. Besides, only a few
natural gas stations are available here," he said.
From 13 natural gas stations across the city, only three are
operational. They are located in Mampang and Pancoran, both in
South Jakarta, and in Pulogadung, East Jakarta.
Jakarta Transportation Agency head Rustam Effendy said the
mobile diesel fuel pumps would occupy unused space at bus
terminals. He also emphasized that private car owners would be
banned from purchasing diesel fuel from the pumps since the fuel
would be subsidized by the administration.
"We want to start separating (fuel supply) for public
transportation vehicles and private cars," he said.
He refused to detail when the pumps would become operational,
saying that the implementation would "depend on the private
party's readiness" rather than the administration's initiative.
None of the Petross officials was willing to comment after the
meeting.