Responding to a protest by bajaj drivers, Jakarta Governor Joko “Jokowi” Widodo promised on Friday to find a solution for a smooth replacement of the three-wheeled taxis with more environmentally-friendly vehicles. Jokowi said in a visit to a bajaj cooperative office in Rawamangun, East Java, he would meet with representatives of the parties in charge of replacing the two-stroke, gasoline-powered bajaj with those using compressed natural gas (CNG). He said he would find solution whereby bajaj drivers would be able to buy the new CNG-powered vehicles at lower prices.
“I will change the gubernatorial decree [dealing with the replacement] if necessary,” he said, admitting that the price of the new vehicles was not affordable for the drivers. Dozens of bajaj drivers staged a protest in front of City Hall in Central Jakarta on Thursday and demanded the city administration lower the price of the new vehicles, which was set at Rp 59 million (US$6,200) each from 2011’s Rp 55 million. Drivers pay a daily fee of around Rp 115,000 per day in a rent-to-own program for the new vehicles.
According to protestors, the firm PT Abdi Raharja has been the sole distributor for spare parts and new vehicles since 1997. Jokowi said his office would strive to create a healthy competition among cooperatives or companies, so there would not be a monopoly on the new vehicles. The head of the Jakarta Transportation Agency, Udar Pristono, said his agency had conducted a fair tender process to avoid the monopoly. “By law, only a company or registered cooperative which already has a bajaj pool is eligible to bid.” Udar said Abdi Raharja was only a supplier, so it did not have rights to participate in the tender.
“The drivers used to buy new vehicles and spare parts from Abdi Raharja individually,” he said. He said the drivers could not buy the new vehicles individually any longer, but were instead forced to join operators to make purchases collectively. “The price and which supplier they buy from is up to the operator,” he said. The agency said that out of 14,424 existing vehicles, only 2,755 bajaj had been replaced with the CNG-powered variety. The city administration is now intensifying efforts to solve the traffic woes Jakartans face every day.
Besides replacing old vehicles with environmentally friendly ones, the city administration has also considered a restriction to limit cars on the roads based on license plate numbers. Deputy Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama said on Friday that the administration was still studying the implementation of the odd-even restriction. “The governor said it’s not mandatory because it would only be a transition to an electronic road pricing system,” he said. The city administration is considering three short-term options — the current three-in-one system, the odd-even system and electronic road pricing — to ease the traffic as it begins to build more public transportation means like a monorail and mass rapid transit (MRT). — JP/cor
source : the jakarta post
source : the jakarta post
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