Cijago toll road opening disrupts traffic

The opening of a 3.7-kilometer section of the Cinere-Jagorawi toll road over the weekend disrupted traffic in thoroughfares leading to the tollgate in Cimanggis, local police said.

It would appear that the announcement by toll road operator PT Translingkar Kita Jaya that the toll road would be free in the first week of operation was a little bit too effective, as residents came in droves to try out the new toll road.

“It’s only the second day [since the toll road’s opening] and local residents are still understandably euphoric,” Depok traffic police chief Comr. Risto Samudra told The Jakarta Post over the phone on Saturday.

Local traffic police will monitor the area over the next few days to see if the increase in traffic is permanent or temporary. “Rest assured that we will devise new traffic management steps should it be deemed necessary,” Risto said.

He said he had deployed more officers to the area in anticipation of an increase in the volume of vehicles. “I usually only deploy two officers to manage the area. [On Saturday], I deployed eight.”

Local traffic police are reporting that a lack of clear traffic management around the area has created severe congestion at several intersections leading to the tollgate in Cimanggis, Depok, south of Jakarta.

“We are overwhelmed. [Since the toll road opened], there can be a 500-meter backup in traffic at all intersections leading to the tollgate,” local traffic officer Suyadi said as quoted by tempo.co.

The Cimanggis tollgate, which has four lanes, can be reached from Jl. Gas Alam in Cimanggis, near the intersection between Jl. Gas Alam and Jl. Bogor Raya.

“Right now, motorists from Jl. Insinyur Haji Juanda wanting to enter the toll road through Jl. Gas Alam meet up with those passing through Jl. Raya Bogor from Bogor to Jakarta, creating chaos at the intersection, which leads to the backup in traffic,” Suyadi said.

Translingkar Kita Jaya president director Bambang Hartanto said his company would work together with the Depok Police and the transportation agency to develop necessary traffic management measures to ease congestion in the area.

“We will reset several traffic lights in the area to anticipate increasing traffic,” he said as quoted by tempo.co.

Bambang said he expected the new toll road to help ease traffic congestion in Lenteng Agung,
South Jakarta.

The company is also in charge of developing Section II, which will connect Jl. Raya Bogor with Kukusan-Beji in Depok, according to Bambang.

“Development [of Section II] has reached 60 percent [of the target],” he said.

The planned toll road, once finished, will be 14.7 kilometers long in total. It will be the first toll road that directly connects several dense residential areas in Depok, including Cimanggis and Cinere, to the Jakarta Outer Ring Road (JORR).

Bambang said total investment in the toll road’s first section reached Rp 647 billion, comprising Rp 266 billion for construction, Rp 242 billion for land acquisition and Rp 228 billion for landscaping. The project was funded by loans from Bank Mandiri, Bank Jatim and Bank DKI.

He added that the company had proposed to the Toll Road Regulatory Agency a Rp 4,000 (44 US cents) toll for cars but had yet to receive approval. (mim)