T

he city administration long ago came up with the idea of implementing electronic road pricing (ERP), a plan that has been put off numerous times due to various complications.

Jakarta Transportation Council (DTKJ) chairwoman Ellen Tangkundung said in a discussion recently that the project, first instigated in 2006, would need to go through many stages before it could be materialized.

Ellen said that when the plan was reintroduced in 2013 by then Jakarta governor Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo, ERP did not have a legal umbrella. '€œHence, the central government and the city administration needed to make one,'€ she said.

She added that it took at least two years for the two institutions to complete the necessary legal instruments, in the form of a law, a government regulation and a bylaw. They were finished in 2014. '€œNow, the city is finalizing the bidding documents,'€ she said.

The Jakarta administration has turned to the ERP system because its three-in-one scheme enacted in 1994 has proven ineffective at easing traffic congestion. Motorists cheat the system by paying people known as jockeys to increase the number of passengers in their cars.

When the ERP plan was first initiated, the city administration was confident that the project could be implemented in early 2014. However, the process has been much slower than expected.

Dozens of seminars and meetings were held with all stakeholders including the Jakarta Police, parties whose businesses may be affected and the project'€™s investors.

The city has also started on other supporting policies like restricting motorcycle traffic on Jl. MH Thamrin, Central Jakarta, one of the roads where ERP will be implemented.

Initially, ERP will be implemented on Jl. Sudirman, Jl. MH Thamrin and Jl. Rasuna Said in South Jakarta.

In 2014, two out of the three companies vying to provide the ERP technology '€” Sweden-based road telematics company Kapsch TrafficCom and Norway-based company Q-Free '€” installed prototypes of ERP gantries on Jl. Sudirman and Jl. Rasuna Said, respectively, to show that their products were suitable for Jakarta'€™s harsh weather and traffic.

However, the city administration has still not even conducted bidding for the project. The Jakarta Police have also not finished recording Electronic Registration Identifications (ERI) to be used as a database for ERP.

Ellen, a transportation expert from the University of Indonesia, said ERP was quite a complicated program.

'€œAll aspects, including the payment system, the pricing, the cooperation scheme overseen by the city administration and whether any exceptions should apply to certain types of vehicle plates, need to be finalized before announcing the winner,'€ she said, adding that those aspects could not be changed after the city determined the winner.

Jakarta Governor Basuki '€œAhok'€ Tjahaja Purnama previously pledged that he would announce the winner of the project this year.

A Q-Free consultant Usamah Said, said that he did not understand the delay. '€œThe project will be solely run by the winner. The city administration will not spend a dime,'€ he said, adding that the project would follow a build-operate-transfer (BOT) scheme.

'€œThe clock is ticking. Even if the winner is determined next month, it takes one year for the company to prepare for the operation,'€ he said.

Usamah said that he was afraid that the city would delay the project further, considering that Ahok might take leave or even resign to run for the 2017 gubernatorial election in July.

The consultant also complained about a lack of knowledge of the project from new city officials. '€œThe city administration keeps changing the officials who are in charge of the program. Each new official will ask the same questions and we have to start from the beginning,'€ he said.

Jakarta Financial and Asset Management Board (BPKAD) head Heru Budi Hartono said that the ERP system was complex and that the city administration needed to thoroughly prepare before beginning the project.