Underground railway project receives mixed reactions

JAKARTA (JP): A Japanese firm's announcement of its intention to start construction on a 14.5 kilometer underground railway project next year has drawn differing reactions from an environmentalist and urban expert.

Contacted by The Jakarta Post on Saturday, executive secretary of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (WALHI) for the Jakarta area, Ahmad Safrudin, said he was opposed to the project and called on the administration to temporarily postpone it.

But chairman of the Bandung Institute of Technology center for urban design structure, Mohammad Danisworo, strongly supported the plan, saying that it was badly needed to help solve the city's chronic traffic problem.

Ahmad said the administration should not allow the Japanese government to begin the US$1.5 billion project, which it will finance through a soft loan, at a time when most people were unable to pay for basic food.

"It would be wise for the city administration to postpone the project, even though we all agree that it is a good way to solve traffic problems in the city," he said.

Ahmad suggested the administration could begin the project after the country's ailing economy had recovered.

"The funds allocated to pay for the project could then be used to help poor people make ends meet," he said.

Governor Sutiyoso announced on Friday that Itochu Corp. of Japan had verbally expressed their readiness to start construction of the repeatedly delayed 14.5 kilometer subway next year.

Scheduled for completion in 2003, the project would be jointly financed by Itochu and the Japanese government through a soft loan to the Indonesian government at an interest rate of 0.75 percent per annum.

Jakarta would be allowed to repay the loan over a period of 40 years, the governor said.

Ahmad said the administration should not take on more debt because it would only become a further burden.

"The subway project is not urgent for the capital at the moment," he said.

However, Danisworo said the subway was one of the best ways of resolving the city's acute traffic problem.

Thus, people should not just judge it from a financial point of view.

"We should also consider the long-run benefits like improved productivity because people would spend less time traveling and more time working. It would help to reduce levels of air pollution in the capital," he said.

Danisworo said the project would also create a "new life" for the city because business nodes could be developed around each of the 17 stations proposed along the subway's route. (ind)