There Is No Budget, Anies Baswedan's Dream Of Building A Bicycle Lane Of Up To 101 Kilometers In 2021 Threatens To Run Aground

Illustration-Permanent bicycle lane on Jalan Sudirman (ANTARA DOK)

JAKARTA - DKI Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan once planned to build additional bicycle lanes in the capital city of up to 101 kilometers by 2021. However, this dream is in danger of failing.

Head of Traffic Division of the DKI Jakarta Transportation Agency, Rudy Saptari, said that the continuation of the bicycle lane construction was stalled because it did not have a budget.

The budget for the bicycle lane construction will be allocated for handling the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The budget in 2021 is still undergoing refocusing, especially for activities that are prioritized for handling COVID-19. Of course, we must also adjust the availability of the existing budget," said Rudy when contacted, Wednesday, September 22.

Rudy admitted that his party did not know whether there was still a bicycle lane budget in the APBD. Because the budget is almost deadlocked, the DKI Transportation Agency is still waiting for a policy to determine the budget that can be channeled for the construction of bicycle lanes such as financing schemes outside the APBD.

"It is possible to use the KLB (building floor coefficient) and CSR (corporate social responsibility) schemes. But we will discuss this later," he said.

In addition, Rudy also admitted that there were obstacles in determining the road section where the bicycle lane would be built. DKI needs to adjust the bicycle lane route from the initial planned.

"There are several road sections that are planned, construction is not possible because of the road conditions, the main hall has not been arranged. Then there are still road repairs carried out by the Highways Department," he explained.