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.