T

he Jakarta administration has approached more private companies to invest in providing park-and-ride facilities, which will be integrated with Transjakarta stops, bus terminals and commuter train stations.

Jakarta Transportation Agency head Udar Pristono said the agency was cooperating with the management of the Pusat Grosir Cililitan (PGC) shopping center in East Jakarta to provide a park-and-ride facility near the PGC and Transjakarta bus stop.

Using a multistory structure, the construction of the four-floor facility is still ongoing.

'€œWe did not use the city budget to build the park-and-ride facility. PGC built it based on our recommendation that the facility would be needed to support the Transjakarta service,'€ Udar told The Jakarta Post over the phone on Wednesday.

He said the new park-and-ride was expected to facilitate hundreds of cars and thousand of motorcycles.

According to the transportation agency'€™s website, the city currently has four park-and-ride facilities in Ragunan, South Jakarta; Kalideres bus terminal in West Jakarta; Kampung Rambutan bus terminal in East Jakarta; and Lebak Bulus in South Jakarta.

Of these four, only the Ragunan facility has a multistory structure similar to the one next to PGC, the others still use landed parking area.

Park-and-ride facilities are also available at a number of train stations, while a few others are managed by private businesses.

'€œNext year, we aim to build more park-and-ride facilities at bus terminals that will be totally revamped,'€ Udar said.

In an effort to revamp the public transportation system and encourage more people to use it, the administration has announced its plan to renovate 15 bus terminals, including Muara Angke and Tanjung Priok in North Jakarta; Senen in Central Jakarta; Klender and Kampung Melayu in East Jakarta; and Kota, Grogol and Kali Deres in West Jakarta.

The Rp 1.7 trillion (US$151.3 million) project will begin early next year and take one to two years to complete.

Udar said parking facilities located near Transjakarta bus stops would attract more passengers to public transportation. As for parking rates, he added, they should be integrated with Transjakarta tickets.

'€œI want to see greater participation by private companies. We also need more off-street parking sites,'€ he said.

Komunitas Suara Transjakarta chief David Tjahjana said the park-and-ride facilities would more likely encourage people to move from their cars to public transportation if they were located in strategic places.

'€œThe current number of park-and-ride facilities is still not enough. The city needs to provide similar facilities near the three-in-one corridors and popular residential areas, such as Pondok Indah in South Jakarta and Kelapa Gading in North Jakarta,'€ said.