City studying policy to ban old vehicles

The city’s Transportation agency is eying a policy that would limit the age of public transportation vehicles in order to improve efficiency and safety.

Head of the agency Udar Pristono said his office had discussed the policy with the Organization of Land Transportation Owners (Organda) and The Jakarta Transportation Council (DTKJ) on Thursday.

“We discussed the urgency of the policy and the kind of vehicles [that should be affected],” he said.

He said age restriction for public vehicles was necessary because older vehicles were less safe and not comfortable.

Pristono said he could not unveil the results of the discussion without consulting  first with Governor Fauzi Bowo.

Many public vehicles operating in the city, especially buses, were produced in the 1980s.

According to the Pulogadung Vehicle Test Center in East Jakarta, only 28 of 11,297 public buses in operation today have road worthiness certificates. -- JP