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assive rallies, a culvert project, a fire and heavy rain resulted in severe gridlock in Jakarta on Friday, forcing residents to spend hours getting to their destinations.

Eleven rallies took place in the city yesterday. The Jakarta Police estimated that around 4,000 protesters held rallies in several vital spots.

The protesters demonstrated at the House of Representatives, the State Palace and the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) as well as the Hotel Indonesia roundabout.

Workers grouped under the Social Security Action Committee (KAJS) staged a rally in heavy rain in front of the House of Representatives, demanding the government immediately pass the social security providers bill.

In addition, hundreds of other workers from Jakarta Labor Forum, a grouping of several labor associations, staged a protest in front of the City Hall, demanding a provincial minimum wage (UMP) increase from Rp 1.5 million to Rp 2.2 million.

Resident Nuri Ervan, said it took her two hours longer than usual to get to her office from her home.

“It usually takes only an hour and a half using Transjakarta busway from Pondok Kopi [in East Jakarta]to Slipi [West Jakarta]. But today, I needed to spend three and a half hours on the road,” she said.

In addition, she had to get off at Slipi Kemanggisan shelter instead of Slipi Petamburan as the bus could not stop at the shelter she wanted because of the severe traffic. Another Jakartan, Dwirani, who works in Pondok Indah, South Jakarta, said that she saw cars queuing immobile along Jl. Metro Pondok Indah.

“I also saw a fire truck trapped in the long line of traffic,” she said. Bea Nabilla also said that she was stuck on Jl. Sudirman, South Jakarta, for almost two hours.

“I think there was a fire in a building’s basement, and of course that culvert project that has disrupted the traffic for the past few days,” she said.

The fire was in the CIMB Niaga building on Jl. Sudirman, causing a 2-kilometer long tailback of cars heading to Blok M. Employees gathered outside the building while five fire trucks were deployed to control the fire, reportedly caused by faulty wiring.

Alongside the fire, the culvert project also slowed traffic on Jl. Sudirman.

However, the administration did put some effort into easing the traffic in one of the busiest roads in the capital, as the police opened the busway lanes of Corridor 1 to motorists.

In addition, the Jakarta Public Works Agency finally decided to speed up construction work by deploying more workers to install precast culvert boxes and relay the surface of the road before the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Nov. 11.

“Before Nov. 9 the dug up lanes will be usable again by traffic,” Novizal told reporters at the City Hall on Friday.

Novizal said that workers would dig up only small parts of the road every night and immediately resurface them to allow traffic in the morning, contrary to the current method where workers dug up hundreds of meters at a time.

“The construction work will be done from 10 p.m. to 5 p.m.,” he said, adding that the agency would also put steel plates over the new temporary surfaces.

The construction work has been causing daylong traffic jams on both sides of the road since early this month, as the construction has blocked a slow lane and heavy machinery is also parked on the road.

The police’s head of security and safety Adj. Comr. Yakub Dedy Karyawan said that the police had requested that any construction work that could disrupt traffic and security be coordinated with them.

“In the future, all projects should be discussed with the city agencies and the police. How the work will be done, the work schedule, all need to be approved before work can start,” Yakub said. (swd)