TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Jakarta administration will commence a month-long trial of the odd-even license policy starting from Wednesday, July 26, 2016, prior to the implementation of the electronic road pricing (ERP) policy.

Jakarta governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama said that the ERP implementation had been hampered by a number of issues.

"[There are] too many comments [on the ERP policy]," Ahok said at the City Hall in Jakarta on Monday, July 25, 2016.

Ahok added that another issue related to the ERP policy was the sluggish process of regulation drafting. Ahok revealed that he even had to take everything into consideration when making discretion related to the ERP policy.

"We don't want to have problems when making discretion. Is it wrong [for us] to collect retribution on roads. [The ERP] was about to be managed by a private company. But it potentially causes problem," Ahok said.

Ahok explained that many officials still hesitated in making discretion. Ahok argued that discretion should be simple as long as it is beneficial for the people and the government. Therefore, Ahok said that a regional head should consider the positive and negative impacts before making a policy.

Ahok confirmed that he would sign a regulation on ERP soon to allow the project tender to be conducted this week. Ahok said that the ERP policy would be far more effective than the odd-even license plate one in reducing traffic jams in Jakarta. Ahok claimed that the ERP policy would be able to reduce traffic jams by up to 80 percent.

LARISSA HUDA