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Cautious optimism as Jakarta celebrates ‘last’ anniversary as capital
Despite infrastructure improvements over the past decade, problems for an increasingly overburdened Jakarta have begun to rear their ugly heads once more as the city prepares to celebrate its 496th anniversary.
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A Greater Jakarta LRT train passes over Jl. Gatot Subroto in Jakarta on June 14. As part of its soft opening, the LRT will carry a limited number of passengers from July 12 to Aug. 15. (Antara/Galih Pradipta)
Despite infrastructure improvements over the past decade, problems for an increasingly overburdened Jakarta have begun to rear their ugly heads once more as the city prepares to celebrate its 496th anniversary.
Land subsidence, worsening air quality and its perennial issue with traffic have regularly made headlines since the beginning of the year. But with the city set to lose its status as the nation’s capital next year, residents express cautious hope that the government’s eventual exodus could provide Jakarta with much-needed breathing room.
Describing her connections with Jakarta as a “love-hate relationship”, 32-year-old Catherine remarked that so far, no matter how much effort the city puts into fixing its problems, they never seem to go away.
“I know they’ve been opening new green spaces like Tebet Eco Park [in South Jakarta], but the air quality keeps getting worse. We now have the MRT, and TransJakarta is much better now compared to 10 years ago, but the traffic hasn’t improved,” Catherine told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.
A customer service manager by trade, Catherine hopes that an exodus of government employees could buck the trend, no matter how small. “Hopefully, the traffic and pollution could lighten up a bit after they’ve moved out,” she said.
Despite the city’s chronic problems, however, Catherine had never seriously considered packing away to move somewhere else, despite being offered a position to lead her company’s new branch in Yogyakarta.
