Govt delays announcing new city bus fares

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Tue, 02/11/2003 7:37 AM | Jakarta

Novan Iman Santosa and Ahmad Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The city administration delayed announcing expected bus fare price increases on Monday, arguing it needed more time to study the new fares, which had been proposed by the City Land Transportation Owners' Association (Organda).

""It could not be announced this week since it needs a longer process of evaluation. We may announce it before the end of this month,"" City Transportation Agency head Rustam Effendy told reporters at City Hall.

Organda submitted the proposal to the city administration last Friday, seeking a 50-percent increase in fares. It argued the current bus fares were set in May of last year when the diesel fuel was Rp 1,400 per liter.

The central government cut the price of diesel from Rp 1,890 per liter to Rp 1,650 last month, but maintained the premium gasoline price at Rp 1.810 per liter.

Almost all of the city's buses run on diesel, while public minivans use gasoline.

Governor Sutiyoso has hinted that the bus fares could be increased, but rejected Organda's proposed hike of 50 percent.

Sutiyoso also rejected Organda's proposal that the fares for students be abolished.

""Perhaps in the future we should provide more buses for students,"" the governor said.

Besides proposing the fare hike, Organda also suggested the fares for students be abolished since they only caused problems for drivers.

Many bus drivers rejected including students, who, according to the regulation, only need to pay Rp 500 per trip. Groups of students often forcibly stopped buses and even refused to pay the fares in response to the drivers' refusal to let them aboard.

In a separate development, Hungarian Ambassador to Indonesia, Gyrgy Busztin, renewed his invitation to Governor Sutiyoso to visit the Hungarian capital of Budapest.

""The governor said he was ready to visit Budapest although there has been no specific time set for the visit,"" Busztin told reporters at City Hall after meeting Sutiyoso.

Busztin said Jakarta could take lessons from Budapest's success in managing an integrated citywide transportation system, pointing to Jakarta's plan to implement busway systems to overcome chronic traffic congestion.

Sutiyoso himself is slated to visit the Colombian capital of Bogota in March to study the implementation of a busway system in the Latin American country.

The ambassador also renewed his offer to the city administration to use Hungarian-made Ikarus buses to replace the current fleet of rapidly deteriorating city buses.

Rustam, however, said the administration would stick to the Japanese-made Hino and German Mercedes-Benz busses to be used at the first stage of the busway project.

""The options are open for private bus operators to use the Ikarus bus for the later stage of the system,"" he said.

The bus operators themselves face financial problems should they decide to use Ikarus to replace the current fleet as the Hungarians demanded a bank guarantee.

Organda chairman Aip Syarifuddin said the offered bus met all the technical requirements such as size and passenger capacity.

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