• News
• >
• Mobility
• >
• Jakarta eyes new plan to solve gridlock with a heft of help from Japan

Jakarta eyes new plan to solve gridlock with a heft of help from Japan

 

Jakarta continues searching for solutions to its seemingly intractable traffic problem. Experts say more roads will only create more jams, so instead city administrators are testing a series of regulations aimed at easing gridlock. On December 12 Jakarta police announced that traffic-monitoring cameras would be installed along a main north-south thoroughfare as part of monitoring technology aimed at cracking down on traffic violators like the government official who illegally used the TransJakarta bus lane to circumvent a jam in October.

 

In mid-December the Jakarta administration also confirmed its plan to widen Jalan Gatot Subroto to ease traffic tangles along the main artery. The project was slated to start this year, but officials recently said the new road would not be ready until at least 2013 because the widening would be “complicated,” requiring the acquisition of land from nearby businesses and commercial properties.

 

Urban planning experts say Jakarta is in desperate need of a long-term road program, but decentralization has only complicated the matter, since some roads fall under the jurisdiction of the central government, while others are the responsibility of the Jakarta administration. As a result, many roads go without repairs due to bickering between officials and bureaucracy that stalls fixes. Meanwhile, Governor Fauzi Bowo has been quick to pass on responsibility for flooding and damaged infrastructure. After a main toll road in north Jakarta collapsed, officials blamed geological volatility. But geotechnology experts at the University of Indonesia say structural failings and poor engineering are to blame for the collapse of infrastructure projects.

 

Those failings could be improved next year thanks to a budget increase and new promises of foreign aid from Japan. In mid-December the Jakarta City Council approved the proposed $3.09-billion city budget for 2011, and Japan provided Indonesia with nearly $1 billion of a promised $24 billion to develop infrastructure in the capital.

 

Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs, Hatta Rajasa, said the loan would be used to develop urban infrastructure such as roads, train lines, power plants, water plants and seaports. Japan has already provided extensive support for infrastructure development in the capital, including an underground metro line that has been put on hold due to snags with a low interest 30-year loan.

 

Inadequate infrastructure, long a hindrance to investors, is now seen as an investment opportunity that could draw in more foreign direct investment. The government plans to increase infrastructure spending by 28 percent in 2011, to $13.6 billion, but says it will rely on private investment for two-thirds of its needs, Reuters reported.

 

Source: www.thejakartaglobe.com