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Expect Years of Gridlock: Boediono
Camelia Pasandaran | February 23, 2010

Additional toll road sections are an improvement, the Vice President said, but much more needs to be done to tame Jakarta Additional toll road sections are an improvement, the Vice President said, but much more needs to be done to tame Jakarta's legendary traffic. (AFP Photo/Bay Ismoyo)
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Marmz
11:19am Feb 23, 2010

Maybe I am off the mark a little here, but is this admission of gridlock for years to come simply Mr VP washing his hands of the problem? He is there to provide solutions. Not to say "Ho-hum, lack of business as usual." Whats Fauzi up to? Playing with his... moustache?

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Even as he formally opened a new section of Jakarta’s Outer Ring Road on Monday, Vice President Boediono warned that a solution to the city’s perpetual gridlock was way off in the future.

“We can see day to day that the city’s transportation problems are a spectacle for all of us. It hampers our work and mobility and it is a high-cost problem,” Boediono said at the Kayu Besar toll exit as he launched the 9.7-kilometer Kebon Jeruk-Penjaringan toll road.

The Rp 1.7 trillion ($180 million) road was one of six infrastructure projects costing a total of Rp 2.3 trillion inaugurated on Monday. The others are an overpass at Cengkareng, the Cut Meutia overpass in Bekasi, Cibodas bridge in Tangerang, the Karawang ring road in West Java and a 1.35-km bridge in Jambi.

Public Works Minister Djoko Kirmanto said that together they should help ease traffic in Jakarta, Tangerang, Bekasi and Karawang.
He singled out the Kebon Jeruk-Penjaringan toll road for its potential to smooth traffic for commuters, and said another highway being built from Kebon Jeruk to Ulujami would also help. “The purpose of the projects is economic growth and people’s welfare,” he said.
Boediono was realistic about what can really be done, saying the new road might save time and fuel for some but would not solve Jakarta’s epic traffic jams. He said the government must increase the capacity of public transportation and take other steps. “Mass rapid transport has been planned, as well as the revitalization of the railroads,” he said. “Busway problems also need to be solved.”
Even that might not be enough, he warned. “We need to manage the rise in the use of privately owned cars given our capacity to increase the highways. We should not stop working on urban transportation.”

Echoing concerns of environmentalists and urban planners who have long criticized Jakarta’s lack of planning, Boediono said neighborhoods had to be harmonized with transport needs. Chaotic public and private transportation, Boediono said, harms the environment and people’s health. “This is very costly,” he said.

Boediono said the new highway and other efforts to connect parts of the region were also aimed at the eventual goal of an integrated “national logistics system” consisting of “land, water and air transportation, including information technology and communication.” To reach that goal, Boediono called for the development of “soft” infrastructure, such as better regulation and more transparent information flows, to complement “hard” projects like roads and bridges.

Deputy Public Works Minister Hermanto Dardak said the ministry had ambitious plans for 504 kilometers of new roads in Greater Jakarta by the end of 2012. He said 200 km of the total were now around 80 percent complete.

“The main priorities are projects connecting Jakarta’s most strategic locations, such as Soekarno-Hatta Airport and Tanjung Priok Port,” Hermanto said.


Additional reporting by Irvan Tisnabudi