Jakarta shoppers and diners, save a place in your heart for a new favorite place: A 1.68-kilometer-long shopping corridor on a street known as Casablanca, dubbed the "New Orchard Road."

The currently congested road with its poor sidewalks, save for a short stretch in the Mega Kuningan area, is to be transformed into a street where sidewalks are wide, comfortable and dotted with street cafes.

The high fences in front of the buildings are expected to come down, giving pedestrians easier access to hop from one shopping center to another. Afraid of crossing the street? Don't worry, the shopping corridor is planning to have pedestrian underpasses, filled with underground shops.

The city administration expects to see congestion in the area ease after completion of the elevated road in 2011, to go from Jl. KH. Mas Mansyur in Tanah Abang, Central Jakarta to Casablanca, or Jl. Prof. Dr. Satrio, and to stretch to Kampung Melayu in East Jakarta.

"That way, road users who don't have any business in Casablanca can use the elevated road to get to their destination," Wiriyatmoko, the head of the Spatial Planning Agency, said recently.

As for public transportation, Wiriyatmoko said the city administration had planned an improvement. "Public transportation will be by bus, there will be no public minivans there. Minivans can serve passengers going to neighborhoods at the back of Casablanca," he said. Currently, public transportation through Casablanca include both minivans and minibuses.

The city administration is considering including Casablanca in the Mass Rapid Transit plan for the East-West route. "But it is still under discussion," he said.

In the first phase, the city administration will build an MRT line between Lebak Bulus in South Jakarta and Dukuh Atas in Central Jakarta.

Next, it will build the route from Dukuh Atas to Kota in West Jakarta. In the third phase, as mentioned in the spatial planning for 2010-2030, Jakarta is to build one MRT route to connect the eastern part of the city to the western, which will probably connect Pulo Gebang in East Jakarta with Rawabuaya in West Jakarta.

The Urban Design Guidelines (UDGL) for the development of Casablanca, however, include the scenario of having an MRT system.

"We have met several times with the city administration and the developers of Casablanca to discuss the UDGL since its issuance in February this year. It suggested there would probably be underground MRT stations," Michael Wijaya, sales manager of Kuningan City, told The Jakarta Post, recently.

Real estate services firm Jones Lang LaSalle says a public transportation project would make the area more interesting to the market. "If there is a project like an MRT or monorail, I believe the congestion would be significantly eased," Lucy Rumantir, its chairman, told the Post via email.

Michael said developers and the city administration had coordinated to realize what was drawn up in the UDGL and, so far, his office, PT Arah Sejahtera Abadi, was in support of the guidelines.

The guidelines, which the developers should comply with, suggest developers give some of their land for pedestrian facilities, remove the high fences to ensure good access and optimize the space underground.

"We will give six to 10 meters of land alongside our compound for sidewalks. There will be street cafes on them," Michael said. Kuningan City, which comprises offices, residential towers and a shopping center, supports the no-fences idea. "Our shopping center is going to use a see-through design," he said.

Kuningan City has faith in the city administration and the police to maintain security in the area. "There is a police station nearby and the patrols are getting more frequent," he said.

It does not mean street vendors do not have a place on Casablanca. Senior urban planner Muhammad Danisworo, the UDGL consultant for Casablanca, said the guidelines include food hawkers and street vendors in the design, "They are integrated in the design proposals to make them more orderly and cleaner." Wiriyatmoko told the Post all developers in the area had to comply with the guidelines, meaning they had to strip out their high fences and donate land for the sidewalks.

"We won't issue permits, or for existing developers, permit extensions, if they don't comply. But I'm sure they will all comply," he said.

How much shopping one can do on Casablanca? Michael said there could be seven to eight shopping malls in the area and Wiriyatmoko said there would be shops all along the shopping corridor.

"How many shops are there on Orchard Road? We will have just as many," he said.

Popular

Young Garuda misses last chance to qualify for Paris Olympics

Elon Musk's Starlink granted licences to operate in Indonesia

Is Indonesia really ready to embrace dual citizenship?