The Indonesian Transportation Society (MTI) wants the city to improve public transport rather than continue the plan to build six new inner toll roads, costing Rp 23 trillion (US$2.4 billion).
"Building new inner toll roads will exacerbate traffic congestion because at the end of the toll road, vehicles will hit artery roads inside the city," MTI's deputy secretary-general Ellen S.W. Tangkudung said.
She said if the administration and the central government planned to build new toll roads, adding to the length of existing roads, they should build outer-ring roads so vehicles traveling from the north to the south did not pass inner roads.
The large budget needed to build the six new inner toll roads, she said, would be better used to improve the public transport system such as replacing old, rusty buses, improving the Transjakarta service and accelerating the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) project.
Councilor Rois Hadayana Syaugie of Commission D overseeing public works and transportation said the construction of six inner toll roads was not a solution for traffic congestion unless public transport was also improved.
He said the administration needed to invite experts and representatives of road users to thoroughly study the urgency of building the six toll roads.
"The city may only need three, not six, inner toll roads," he said.
In response, Deputy Governor for Transportation, Industry and Trade Sutanto Soehodo said the plan to build inner toll roads was reasonable considering that the city's ratio between roads and the total area was only 6.4 percent.
"The length of our roads is far from ideal," he said. "In Tokyo, Japan, there is a magnificent subway network, but the ratio between the road and the area is around 18 percent."
Sutanto said he did not agree that building new toll roads would encourage the procurement of private vehicles.
"The growing number of private vehicle ownership cannot be halted. It's beyond the city's authority," he said.
In 2005, the central government approved the city's plan to build six-inner toll roads. Recently, City Secretary Muhayat said the city planned to fund the 85.28 kilometer project with a self-financing system by involving city-owned enterprises, which are profitable and publicly listed.
The city expects to earn more revenue by operating its toll roads and is currently requesting 63 percent responsibility of the construction.
However, as the plan is against a 2007 presidential decree on investment, the city is still trying to get approval on the financing scheme.
The decree stipulates that the project owner is only allowed to build 10 percent of the project's total infrastructure, while the remaining 90 percent should be built by the central government.
The six planned toll roads, to be built in phases, are Kampung Melayu-Kemayoran, Pasar Minggu-Casablanca, Kampung Melayu-Duri Pulo, Pulogebang-Sunter, Ulujami-Tanah Abang and Semanan-Sunter.
Governor Fauzi Bowo previously said areas with good, basic public transport, such as Kampung Melayu-Gunung Sahari-Kemayoran, might be prioritized.
A 2004 study of the city's transportation masterplan predicted that unless the government made a drastic improvement, there would be 6.8 million new vehicles and 90 percent of Jakarta's central business district would be blocked by 2020.
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