Planning Of Paid Roads At The Jakarta Border

Congestion on a Street in Jakarta (Irfan Meidianto / VOI)

JAKARTA - The Jabodetabek Transportation Management Agency (BPTJ) of the Ministry of Transportation plans to implement a paid road system or Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) in the Jakarta border area. Among them are the Daan Mogot road which connects Jakarta-Tangerang, the Kalimalang road which connects Jakarta-Bekasi, and the Margonda road which connects Jakarta-Depok.

Head of Public Relations of BPTJ, Budi Rahardjo, explained that more than half of the private vehicles passing through Jakarta belong to residents who live in buffer areas. This is known from the level of traffic movement in Jabodetabek. In 2015, the movement rate was still 48 million vehicle movements per day. However, in 2018 it doubled to 88 million per day.

"The indication is that traffic jams are everywhere, so it is necessary to control the border areas. If the congestion condition is not controlled, it will affect the quality of human life in Jabodetabek," Budi said when contacted, Monday, November 18.

With a paid road scheme like this, Budi hopes road users from the Jakarta buffer zone will think twice about bringing private vehicles into the capital and choose mass public transportation.

So far, the realization of ERP system planning will only begin in 2020. However, Budi said that ERP planning cannot be done in a hurry. Because, there needs to be a comprehensive discussion about the technicalities and impact of ERP implementation for Jakarta and buffer areas such as Depok, Tangerang and Bekasi.

"There are still discussions to be completed. Some are related to legal schemes, technical schemes, institutional schemes, and financing schemes. Later, if the schemes discussed are concrete, they can only be implemented," Budi explained.

ERP is not a new idea. Plans began to emerge in 2006, when Jakarta was led by Sutiyoso. Then, the ERP plan was finalized during Joko Widodo's leadership and was continued by Basuki Tjahaja Purnama (Ahok). At that time, the preparation of regulations to the tender process.

The ERP system trial was carried out by two vendors and has been installed on Jalan Medan Merdeka Barat, Jalan MH Thamrin, and Jalan Sudirman. However, the ERP improvement plan stalled again because the tender participating vendors resigned during the leadership of DKI Governor Anies Baswedan.

Currently, Anies will again implement a paid road system, as stated in one of the points in the Governor's Instruction Number 66 of 2019 concerning Air Quality Control in Jakarta.

Anies added the ERP feature with the congestion pricing concept, which he said was more up-to-date, because according to him ERP is a technology that has passed its time, aka old technology.

The congestion pricing cost arrangement is planned to vary for each road route and time of congestion. This policy will be implemented in 2021. Meanwhile, Anies instructed the Jakarta Transportation Agency (Dishub) to prepare a draft regional regulation starting next year.