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takeholders have urged the Jakarta administration to immediately tidy up the disorganized network of underground utility ducts in the capital following a recent explosion in a gas pipe belonging to state-owned gas distributor PT Perusahaan Gas Negara (PGN).

The police and a PGN team have been conducting separate investigations into the incident, which occurred at the Sudirman Central Business District (SCBD) area in South Jakarta, but have yet to release their conclusions to the public.

PGN vice president for corporate communications Ridha Ababil said the company urged the city administration to immediately build utility ducting facilities that could be used by companies.

'€œIn the future, we hope that the city administration, through a city-owned company, will provide utility ducting facilities that we can rent so we can guarantee the safety of our [underground] gas pipelines,'€ Ridha said when contacted on Sunday.

Even though the police have yet to release their findings on the cause of the incident, Ridha pointed out that the incident was not caused by activities conducted by his company.

'€œ[PGN] has never seen such an incident in the past 50 years. We carry out regular checks on our pipelines '€” we check our 700-kilometer-long gas pipeline network in Jakarta every day. The recent incident was triggered by a construction job conducted by another company and this has affected the company and our customers,'€ he said, adding that the company had installed a sign to inform contractors working in the area about the presence of the gas pipeline in the area.

A number of construction projects are being carried out in the area of the incident, including those of city-owned mass rapid transit (MRT) project operator PT MRT Jakarta and those of state-owned telecommunications company PT Telkom.

PT MRT Jakarta president director Dono Boestami denied that the incident was caused by the MRT construction project, saying that its contractors maintained high safety standards.

'€œWe have very high safety standards '€” smoking is not allowed inside the construction site, we also use standard safety equipment, etc. However, we can'€™t enforce the same standards on other contractors as we don'€™t have the authority to do so. The Jakarta Public Works Agency can do that,'€ Dono said over the weekend.

Dono shared his experiences in dealing with the disorganized utility ducts in the capital when the company started the MRT construction project last year.

'€œDuring project bidding, the city administration showed us the map [of utility ducts] '€” many of which were unidentified. Some companies denied owning certain lines. PGN once denied owning a gas pipeline in the Dukuh Atas area but later we found out that it was an inactive gas pipeline that was built during the Dutch colonial era. It is very messy underground,'€ he said.

Dono encouraged authorities to apply certain safety standards and to put existing regulations on underground utility ducts into practice.

'€œThe Public Works Ministry and the Jakarta Public Works Agency are the two institutions that have the authority to implement regulations and to control the implementation. We already have the regulations: from gubernatorial decrees, bylaws and so on. For example, the regulations oblige companies to bury utility ducts at least 1 meter to 1.5 meters below the surface. Implementation is the key,'€ he said.

Meanwhile, Jakarta Public Works Agency utilities unit head Saleh Dharmawan acknowledged the poor condition of utility ducts on Jl. Sudirman.

'€œThe Public Works Agency was only tasked to control utility ducts in 2009 '€” we have not issued any utility installation permits since then. Previously, it was overseen by the Utilities Network Coordinating Agency and later by the Public Roads and Lighting Agency,'€ he said.