On his first day in office, Jakarta Governor Joko
“Jokowi” Widodo met with State-Owned Enterprises Minister Dahlan Iskan to
discuss ways to solve the city’s traffic woes, including a plan to revive the
abandoned monorial project.
“I want the project to be presented to me again,
because I want to understand why it was stopped,” Jokowi said after the meeting
on Tuesday.
Former governor Fauzi Bowo called off the project in
2011, three years after its developer, PT Jakarta Monorial, halted construction
due to legal and financial problems.
Earlier this year, the city administration under Fauzi
announced that it planned to use the concrete columns left by the initial
construction phase for part of an elevated bus rapid transit (BRT) project.
However, state-owned construction firm PT Adhi Karya
announced in August that it wanted to revive the project. Dahlan backed the
plan, saying to help ease traffic congestion in the capital.
The Jakarta Development Planning Board (Bappeda)
maintains that an elevated BRT system is more suitable for Jakarta’s conditions
than a monorail. A monorail would be less feasible as it would require a huge
amount of investment and subsidy, Bappeda’s head, Sarwo Handayani, said.
PT Adhy Karya’s president director, Kiswodarmawan,
said he would meet with Deputy Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama on Friday to
present the company’s plan regarding the project’s revival. He declined to
disclose details of the project, however, which he said would cost about Rp 3.7
trillion (US$390 million).
Earlier on Tuesday, Jokowi visited Pademangan
subdistrict, North Jakarta, where he asked residents to collaborate with the
Public Works Agency to clean the area’s waterways ahead of the rainy seasons.
He said he had found drains in the area to be dirty, many of them clogged with
garbage and mud, which prevented the flodding in the area.
“I have seen many dirty tributaries here and I have
asked neighborhood heads and residents to help clean them. I’ll give them a
week,” he said during his field visit to three densely populated areas in the
city.
He added that residents would receive assistance from
the agency to clean the clogged waterways. “The Public Works Agency will
provide sacks, truks and equipment to move the garbage, if necessary. Residents
should be involved in the clean-ups, so that they make a contribution,” Jokowi
said.
He added that the administration had prepared the
budget so that the work could be started immediately. Pademangan is one of
North Jakarta’s flood-prone areas during the rainy season due to clogged
drains.
Besides visiting Pademangan, Jokowi, who was
accompanied by several agency heads, also visited Tanah Tinggi Kota Paris in
Central Jakarta and Ciliwung River in Bukit Duri in South Jakarta.
In Tanah Tinggi, Jokowi made notes about problems
faced by residents living in low-cost apartements in the ditrict, and asked the
relevant agency heads with him at the time to focus on improving conditions in
the apartmens.
When visiting the Sanggar Ciliwung Merdeka community
organization in Bukit Duri, he discussed with residents the possible design of
low-cost aparment blocks, known as kampung
deret (a row of villages).