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No overarching plan for city's many transit projects
Five public transit stakeholders and a toll road developer are planning to open at least 16 new routes in greater Jakarta and six inner toll roads, but each of them is working alone without the guidance of any master plan
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Five public transit stakeholders and a toll road developer are planning to open at least 16 new routes in greater Jakarta and six inner toll roads, but each of them is working alone without the guidance of any master plan.
A recent meeting of all the stakeholders in the Jakarta administration's light rail transit (LRT), mass rapid transit (MRT), the commuter rail line, toll road developments and Transjakarta busway revealed that many of their routes would overlap.
Consultants at the meeting also raised the issue of the city landscape and noise pollution, as well as air pollution at intersections where elevated infrastructure will be stacked one on top of the other.
The capital city, for example, will have three giant projects that connect with Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Banten. They comprise state-owned railway company PT KAI's two projects ' the extension of the current Greater Jakarta commuter line from Batu Ceper in Tangerang to the airport and the elevated rail from Gambir Station in Central Jakarta to the airport via Pantai Indah Kapuk (PIK) and Kamal Muara in North Jakarta ' and the LRT project connecting Kemayoran in Central Jakarta to the airport.
Roschid Budiantoro, the executive vice president of development at KAI, said during the meeting at the Urban Planning Agency office recently that the route of KAI's second project would overlap with the administration's LRT line, to be built by city-owned property developer PT Jakarta Propertindo (Jakpro).
'We need to discuss how to resolve this matter. We either have two side-by-side lines or only one,' he said.
According to the map presented in the meeting, which only showed planned routes and not existing ones, other routes that overlap include the controversial six inner elevated toll roads to be built by PT Jakarta Tollroad Development (JTD).
The map also showed that some of the routes are concentrated in favored areas like Pancoran and Manggarai in South Jakarta, and Slipi in Central Jakarta (bordering on West Jakarta).
The 9.15-kilometer route connecting Pasar Minggu and Manggarai, both in South Jakarta, will overlap with Transjakarta's elevated lanes connecting the University of Indonesia in Depok, West Java, with Manggarai.
The 12.65-kilometer toll road from Kampung Melayu in East Jakarta to Duri Pulo in Central Jakarta, will also overlap with KAI's elevated railway project from Manggarai to Duri in West Jakarta, which is located next to Duri Pulo.
A part of the proposed toll road connecting Sunter in North Jakarta to Semanan in West Jakarta, overlaps with the MRT route connecting Cikarang in Bekasi and Tangerang in Banten at Grogol. The road will also overlap with the Transjakarta project to Kalideres, while the same MRT route will also overlap with Jakpro's LRT project.
The overlaps discussed in the meeting did not include overlaps with existing routes. Assistant governor for transportation Sutanto Soehodho told The Jakarta Post earlier that one of Adhi Karya's LRT support pillars would be planted in the middle of a Transjakarta lane in Kuningan in South Jakarta.
Riri Asnita, an official at the Bina Marga Agency, which is responsible for elevated crossings, said that besides overlapping routes, another big concern was elevated crossings where many routes met up.
'One of the biggest meeting points is in Pancoran [South Jakarta] where the routes of Transjakarta, Adhi Karya's LRT and the toll road cross,' she said, adding that Pancoran already had an overpass.
Riri said the city administration and the parties involved in the projects should also discuss further the meeting point of the MRT, toll road and the LRT in Senen, Central Jakarta.
Urban planning expert at Trisakti University, Nirwono Yoga, said the overlaps occurred because the city administration had not complied with the Spatial Planning Bylaw.
'This is what happens if they agree to all projects proposed by private entities and say if no public funds are used, it will be fine. They think the bylaw can be easily revised every five years,' said Nirwono, who was one of the consultants on the bylaw.
Nirwono said the bylaw had determined what kind of transportation could be developed and the potential locations. 'The city administration is supposed to use the bylaw as guidance for private entities examining the potential market for projects,' he said.
Nirwono said if the projects, all of which are elevated, were implemented, Jakartans would suffer because air pollution would be trapped at street level by the overhead strucures.
'The impact will not be seen in two or three years but in 10 years when the city administration will have to pay more for the health care of residents,' he said.
Nirwono said he hoped the city administration would rethink and re-study all the projects and focus on priorities like the Transjakarta corridors and MRT.
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