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Jakartans praise progress ahead of anniversary
“I want to go to the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle,” said Muhammad Azmi, a college student also born and raised in Jakarta. “I want to see what the hype is all about.”
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Workers put together a stage at the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle in Central Jakarta, on Thursday. The Jakarta administration is set to celebrate the city’s 492nd anniversary by staging various performances on Saturday. For the event, authorities will close a section of Jl. MH Thamrin from the intersection in front of the Sarinah department store to Dukuh Atas, from 3 p.m. to midnight. (The Jakarta Post/Dhoni Setiawan)
As we approach the city’s 492nd anniversary, Jakartans consider the capital to have shown improvement in some aspects.
Some say they are finally happier with its notoriously nightmarish traffic, and hope for even more improvements in public transportation.
“I wish Jakarta to be a cleaner city with less congestion,” said Thea Fuk Loy, 57, who was born and raised in the capital. The city is home to about 10 million people and 2.12 million trips are made there daily from the city’s outskirts.
According to the recently released TomTom Traffic Index, Jakarta traffic showed the “biggest improvement” among 403 cities ranked. Congestion went down from 61 percent in 2017 to 53 percent in 2018. However, Jakarta still ranks as the seventh-most-congested city in the world.
Read also: Central Jakarta thoroughfare to be closed during city’s anniversary
Thea added he had seen positive developments in Jakarta as the city was becoming more modern. He is especially pleased with the city’s MRT and LRT services.
President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo launched the first phase of the MRT connecting Lebak Bulus in South Jakarta to the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle in Central Jakarta in March; while the LRT Jakarta which connects Velodrome Station in Rawamangun, East Jakarta to Boulevard Utara Station in Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta, has been in a trial run period since June 11.
