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AKARTA: The City Council vowed Friday to expedite their deliberation of a draft bylaw on the much-anticipated Electronic Road Pricing (ERP).

Council deputy speaker Triwisaksana said councillors would only need one-and-a-half months to deliberate.

The city council is still waiting for the draft from the city government.

“Although the central government has not issued an umbrella regulation, we will still deliberate the draft. We have already included it on our priority list,” he said.

Triwisaksana said that the ERP was urgently needed to solve the city’s worsening traffic.

He said he expected the ERP to be put into effect by early 2012. “The city’s current budget has Rp 1.6 trillion (US$180.8 million) earmarked for traffic issues and that does not include any funding for the ERP,” he said.

Transport Demand Management coalition chair Azas Tigor Nainggolan said the sooner the better for the city to implement the ERP.

“Construction of new roads won’t solve the problem. That will only work for the first three months. It is urgent that we swiftly enact a policy that will limit the use of private vehicles,” he said, as quoted by tempointeraktif.com. — JP