The City Council has slashed the proposed budget for Jakarta’s expansive and ambitious sidewalk renovation project across the capital, arguing that other programs need attention.

After a long debate during deliberation of the capital’s 2020 budget priorities (KUA-PPAS), held prior to deliberating the 2020 city budget, the City Council’s commission D overseeing development affairs, and the Jakarta Bina Marga Road Agency decided to cut Rp 204 billion (US$14.53 million) from the sidewalk renovation budget for next year.

The administration had previously proposed a budget of Rp 1.2 trillion to build 103 kilometers of new sidewalks. The proposed 2020 project is 40 percent more expensive than the city’s 2019 sidewalk construction project of 67 km.

The massive budget for the project even uses up 30 percent of Bina Marga’s 2020 projected budget of Rp 3.9 trillion.

The hefty proposed budget received floods of criticism from councillors.

“I don’t understand why the administration has to allocate more money to sidewalk construction projects compared to flood prevention projects. Sidewalk construction is not that urgent and it also causes more traffic jams,” councillor of commission D Matnoor Tindoan of the United Development Party (PPP) said on Tuesday.

Commission head Ida Mahmudah of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) also echoed the sentiment.

“Soon many areas in the capital city might be flooded due to the upcoming rainy season. Why has the city administration decided to make sidewalks its priority? Why don’t you concentrate on restoring dams instead?,” she said.

The budget proposed by the city administration for the 2020 flood prevention projects was initially a bit lower than the sidewalk project, totaling around Rp 1 trillion. 

Responding to the criticism, Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan brushed off the concerns. He argued that just because the city administration planned to carry out the sidewalk renovation project, it did not mean it had overlooked other priority projects such as flood prevention.

“Flood prevention has been our priority every year. However, we want to increase the number of sidewalks to encourage residents to walk, because based on the result of a study Indonesia has the lowest number of pedestrians in the world. But we would certainly carry out both projects,” he said earlier this week.

Bina Marga agency head Hari Nugroho said the massive budget for the sidewalk construction project was caused by the agency’s plan to build a complete street system.

“Building sidewalks is a complicated process, the construction projects also involve erecting streetlights along the sidewalks and widening the roads in several areas. We also need to set up the utility network and the amenities. We plan to create a complete street system, which includes crossing lanes, sidewalk transit, ramps for people with disabilities, bike lanes, green spaces and bike parking. All those facilities add to the budget,” Hari said.

Hari also said the revitalization project was also part of efforts to encourage people to walk and use public transportation instead of relying on private vehicles.

He said the project was part of the city’s strategy to curb worsening air pollution as mandated by a 2019 gubernatorial instruction on air quality issued in August.

“The city already has interconnected public transportation such as the Transjakarta city buses, MRT, commuter line trains and public minivans, so we want to encourage people to walk and take public transportation to reduce traffic congestion and curb air pollution,” Hari told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

He explained that currently the capital city only had 16 percent of ideal sidewalks which were comfortable for pedestrians to walk on.

He said the agency could only manage to build and revamp 60 km of sidewalks each year. If the project continued at a similar pace, it would take 50 years to complete.

“So we plan to halve the length of the sidewalk construction project from next year, so we can reach the target in just 25 years,” he said.

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