T

he Jakarta administration and neighboring Bekasi administration of West Java are intensifying their cooperation efforts in several crucial sectors, including spatial planning and transportation.

Jakarta Governor Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo said at City Hall on Wednesday that both administrations were discussing issues related to the boundaries of the two cities for next year'€™s programs.

Jokowi said besides continuing existing cooperation like transportation and sanitation, the meeting also discussed other possible programs like road construction and flood mitigation.

'€œWe will have many things to cooperate on in the future, including current programs like the provision of feeder buses and the monorail project,'€ he said.

The Jakarta Transportation Agency has launched several routes of integrated bus networks (APTB) to neighboring cities, including Bekasi.

A consortium of state-owned enterprises has proposed to build new monorail lines that will connect East Bekasi and Cawang; Cibubur to Cawang, East Jakarta; and Cawang to Kuningan, South Jakarta.

Programs aiming to provide adequate public transportation to Bekasi and other neighboring cities like Depok in West Java and Tangerang in Banten are significant as more than two million commuters from those cities travel to Jakarta daily.

Bekasi Mayor Rahmat Effendi said after the meeting that West Java provincial administration had started some cooperation initiatives but progress was too slow. '€œHence, we decided to work first with Jakarta,'€ he said.

Rahmat said cooperation with the capital needed to be in at least seven sectors '€” spatial planning, sanitation, transportation, road construction, population, environment and regional income.

Besides transportation, one of the longest cooperation initiatives between two cities is the use of Bantargebang landfill in Bekasi.

Rahmat said both cities needed to evaluate the cooperation as the capacity of the landfill had been overwhelmed.

'€œGarbage recycling is not enough if we want to reduce the amount of waste disposed of at the landfill. We'€™re trying to find a suitable system for the landfill.'€

Rahmat said spatial planning would become a central cooperation focus.

The team leader in charge of the formulation of the bylaw on detailed spatial planning (RDTR), Darwin Syam Siregar, said Jakarta would have to synchronize its city plan with the administrations of buffer cities.

'€œBefore the endorsement of the revised bylaw, the Public Works Ministry will facilitate a one-week meeting between the city administration and administrations of satellite cities, namely Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, Bekasi and Cianjur,'€ Darwin told The Jakarta Post.