Welcoming the year 2010, the Jakarta administration has pledged to launch two more busway corridors this year and prioritize programs to tackle flooding in the metropolis.
Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo said Monday he had ordered the city transportation agency to make sure that they would launch the two busway corridors on schedule this year.
“I don’t want to see any delay in the launch of the [busway] corridors 9 and 10,” Fauzi said.
Although the administration completed the development of the infrastructure for the corridors in 2008, it delayed the operations scheduled to start in March 2008 amid a prolonged dispute over tariffs between the municipality and private operators.
The transportation agency aims to run Corridor 9, connecting Pinang Ranti, East Jakarta, and Pluit, North Jakarta, and corridor 10, linking Cililitan, East Jakarta, to Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta, by mid-2010.
Fauzi said the city would cooperate with the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) to make a strategic plan to improve TransJakarta services.
Launched in 2004, the busway system has made a transition from being a pilot project, to being a mass transportation system cutting across the gridlocked Jakarta streets.
The system, however, has been widely criticized since TransJakarta users find the quality of service is deteriorating. In peak hours, for example, people wait longer at bus shelters as there are not enough buses on the existing eight corridors.
Following the recent Indonesian National Arbitration Agency’s (BANI) verdict, which ordered the city administration to pay a higher tariff to the TransJakarta consortium, Fauzi said this was also an opportunity for the city to raise fares.
In November last year, BANI had ordered the city to pay Rp 12,200 (US$1.20) per kilometer fare to the TransJakarta consortium, so ending the prolonged fare dispute.
The fare set by the agency was slightly lower than the fare requested by the consortium, which was Rp 12,885, but much higher than the fare previously agreed at the initial bidding, which had been Rp 9,500.
Currently, a TransJakarta user must pay Rp 3,500 to use the busway service.
Fauzi did not specify how much the fare is expected to increase.
Transportation expert Darmaningtyas said he supported the administration’s plan to improve the TransJakarta level of service.
“If TransJakarta users felt satisfied with the entire service, [then]spending a bit more money on the service would be no problem for them,” he said.
Aside from steps to complete the East Canal Flood mega-project, Fauzi said his administration was also determined to start the Jakarta Emergency Dredging Initiative (JEDI) project this year.
He said the finance minister had informed him that the ministry of justice and human rights was currently evaluating the legal status of the program.
The World Bank, through the finance ministry, had offered US$135.5 million in loans in the first quarter of 2010 for flood control through the JEDI project. Of this figure, the city administration would receive $56.4 million to dredge 13 rivers.
The project is expected to reduce the occurrence of large-scale floods from once every five years to once every 25 years.
