Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Two former ministers for the environment have called on the city administration to relocate some activities from the capital to peripheral areas in order to curb pollution.
Emil Salim and Sarwono Kusumaatmaja both spoke Friday during the book launch of Jakarta, Kota Polusi (Jakarta, a polluted city).
Emil, who served in president Suharto's cabinet, said that the relocation of a number of offices and public services to outside Jakarta in the past had significantly contributed to reducing traffic congestion in the city.
The airport and the biggest state university have both been outside of Jakarta for some time.
In the 1980s the central government decided to build the new Soekarno-Hatta International Airport outside the city, in Cengkareng, Banten province, to replace the old Kemayoran airport in Central Jakarta, which was rapidly becoming a residential area.
Overcrowding in Salemba, Central Jakarta, was also behind the decision to build a University of Indonesia campus on the outskirts of Jakarta in Depok.
"Why don't the authorities apply the (relocation) concept to control air pollution here? It will trim the volume of commuters coming into the city," Emil said.
"If shopping malls, for example, are pushed to peripheral areas, people won't shop in Jakarta. Thus, fewer cars will enter the city's streets."
Shopping malls built in downtown areas contributed much to the air pollution, Emil said.
"All shopping malls offer large parking lots in order to encourage car owners to shop. They trigger more traffic jams in the city," he said.
Emil also proposed the development of Tanjung Priok Port could be extended to other provinces of Banten or West Java to reduce cars or trucks from the two provinces crossing through Jakarta.
The exhaust from gasoline-guzzling private cars contribute up to 80 percent of the air pollution in the city.
Meanwhile, Sarwono who was also a minister in the New Order era, said the realization of the megacity concept could be an important step to controlling air pollution in the city.
"Many cars traveling in the capital are from outside Jakarta. Thus, to create cleaner air, we must remove the main source of pollution from vehicles' emissions. Jakarta then can then extend public transportation to megacity areas to reduce the use of private cars," he said.
The megacity will incorporate Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, Bekasi, Puncak and part of Cianjur in one integrated area, to be known as Jabodetabekpunjur.
The administration says that at least 660,000 cars from Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, Bekasi, Puncak and Cianjur enter Jakarta every day.
The large number of commuters has worsened traffic congestion, particularly at peak hours. Several attempts have been made to address the situation, including the imposition of the three-in-one traffic policy, increased parking fees and the introduction of the busway service. Traffic congestion and air pollution remain high.
Jakarta currently operates three busway corridors and will launch another four corridors next week, all of them operating in the Jakarta area.
However, the administration recently also announced that they would build six inner-city turnpikes to create more spaces for motorists, a plan that was called counterproductive to the clean air campaign by environmentalists.
Emil said the planned turnpikes would only encourage people to drive their cars and would at the end worsen the environment.
"As the traffic increases, the administration builds turnpikes. It will then encourage people to buy the cars. The administration must stop this practice. They must promote public transportation," he said.
There are currently at least 2.5 million private cars and 3.8 million motorcycles in the city every day, but only 255,000 public transportation vehicles.
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