To enhance flood prevention, the city administration announced Thursday dredging along 12 waterways will begin in November.
It expects the project tender to wrap up this week.
"We'll announce the winner in one or two days, give five days for the rebuttal period, then 14 days to prepare for the dredging of 12 bodies of water, all of which means the dredging can begin in November," said Budi Widiantoro, deputy head of the public works agency.
The targeted canals and rivers are the Apuran Atas, Apuran Bawah, Cakung Lama, Petukangan, Primary Central, Semanan, Sentiong Salemba, Taman Sari and Warung Jengkol canals as well as the Cakung, Grogol and Krukut rivers.
The Rp 23 billion (US$2.4 million) project is set to dredge 243,322 cubic meters of garbage out of the canals. The canal lengths range from 467 meters to 3,533 meters.
He said his agency would give one and a half months to the tender winner to complete the work. He expected the dredging would finish by mid December.
The city administration is also waiting for the arrival of more sophisticated dredging equipment from the Netherlands. That equipment will be used to dredge the larger Ancol and Mati canals and the Pademangan river.
Budi said the city had also allocated Rp 50 billion to each of the city's five municipalities to improve guttering and micro drainage systems. He said the funds could be used to dredge or to build new drainage systems.
This initial dredging will focus on smaller streams and canals. With central government support, World Bank loan funds will be used to dredge 13 bigger rivers which run through Jakarta. That dredging project is expected to finish in 2012.
Besides building flood-control infrastructure, the city will also hold disaster-management drills to help residents prepare for possible flooding during the rainy season.
Deputy Governor Prijanto said the city administration would hold its disaster-management week in National Monument (Monas) park from Oct. 21 through Oct. 28.
"Each municipality will hold rehearsals in flood-prone areas and at shelters," he said.
