Anies Baswedan's Subordinates Hope That The Bicycle Lane Project Budget Will Not Be Refocused

Sudirman's permanent bike path (Source: Antara)

JAKARTA - The DKI Jakarta Transportation Agency hopes that the budget for the provision of bicycle lanes will not be affected by the refocusing. This follows the refocusing of the Regional Revenue and Expenditure Budget (APBD) which will be carried out by the DKI Jakarta Provincial Government.

"We hope that there will be no refocusing," said Head of DKI Jakarta Transportation Agency Syafrin Liputo to reporters quoted on Saturday, July 10.

He said the provision of bicycle lanes was included in a strategic project in the administration of DKI Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan. Even Syafrin said, the bicycle lane is targeted to be extended to 170 kilometers this year.

Even so, he realized that this target was not easy to achieve. Moreover, currently there are only 63 kilometers of bicycle lanes and all parties are focusing on handling the COVID-19 pandemic by implementing Emergency Community Activity Restrictions (PPKM).

"Of course at this time we continue to work on the target. But we must understand together, in the midst of the Emergency PPKM we focus on handling COVID-19," said Syafrin.

As for the latest developments to achieve this target, the DKI Provincial Government has built a permanent bicycle lane of 11.2 kilometers.

"Then, plus the construction of bicycle lanes in the station arrangement area, such as at Tebet Station, Manggarai Station, also at Gondangdia Station, and Palmerah Station," he said.

"So there will be a number of bicycle lanes that will be integrated with the existing network in the station arrangement area," Syafrin added.

As previously reported, DKI Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan hopes that the capital will have 170 kilometers of bicycle lanes by the end of this year. Currently the bike path is still 63 kilometers.

In fact, Anies also said that Jakarta should have a 500-kilometer bicycle lane. This he said in commemoration of World Bicycle Day.

"Ideally in Jakarta there will be 500 kilometers of bicycle lanes. That's the ideal that we want to achieve that way," said Anies.