T

he Transportation Ministry’s Greater Jakarta Transportation Management Agency (BPTJ) plans to kick off four transit-oriented development (TOD) projects in Jakarta’s satellite cities this year.

Two TOD projects will be developed in Poris Plawad, Tangerang, and Pondok Cabe in South Tangerang, Banten, while the two others will be developed at Jatijajar in Depok and Baranangsiang in Bogor, West Java.

BPTJ chairman Bambang Prihartanto announced on Friday that the TOD facilities would be constructed by private developers. The agency will soon open the tender for the TOD projects, starting with Poris Plawad, which will be integrated with the existing bus terminal.

“Developers so far have only been building housing complexes or apartments some kilometers away from the nearest train stations, bus shelters or toll road gates. Now, we’re giving them the chance to build housing at the exact location of such public [transportation] facilities,” he said on Friday.

“Therefore, we expect the TOD to eventually reduce the number of private vehicles on the road, as people have easier access to public means of transportation,” he added.

The Poris Plawad TOD facilities will be built atop an existing and operating bus terminal on Jl. Benteng Betawi in Cipondoh district, across from the Batu Ceper commuter train station.

The TOD complex, Bambang added, should have at least four stories. The ground floor is where the bus shelter activity takes place, the second floor is aimed at accommodating commercial purposes like kiosks. The third floor is designated as office space and the upper floors will be for apartments.

“The construction should commence in April this year and conclude within two or three years,” he said.

The Poris Plawad bus terminal would likely get busier in the coming years, as the government planned to add more transportation services to accommodate people’s need to commute from Tangerang to many places across Greater Jakarta.

BPTJ infrastructure director Risal Wasal said the Poris Plawad area would also be connected by light rail transit (LRT) to Jakarta and the extension of the elevated Transjakarta bus route, which currently connects Ciledug in Tangerang with Tendean in South Jakarta.

The new facilities will complement the current services at the Poris Plawad bus terminal and the Batu Ceper train station. These include the Soekarno-Hatta Airport train, Trans Tangerang buses, intercity and interprovincial buses and public minivans.

“Other than the four anticipated TOD buildings, there are at least 47 spots across Greater Jakarta where we can build TOD [facilities],” he said.

Trisakti University urban development expert Yayat Supriyatna said the government should not only focus on adding TOD facilities, but also optimize their use. Simply allowing developers, whether state-owned or private firms, to build housing over train stations and bus shelters would not guarantee the success of that TOD infrastructure.

“It’s definitely not TOD if the developer is only stacking dozens of floors of apartments above stations and [bus] terminal. It’s also not TOD if the developer provides the users with wide parking lots, encouraging them to keep using private vehicles,” he told The Jakarta Post.

Successful TOD, Yayat added, was development that accommodated the people living in the apartments above the transportation facilities as well as thousands of other people living around the TOD area.

“In constructing TOD [infrastructure], the developer should also revitalize the sidewalks and connect the place with more modes of public transportation. That is aimed at attracting more people living in a certain radius around the TOD to gradually start using trains or buses from the TOD too,” he said. (vla)