TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Jakarta Transportation Agency Head Syafrin Liputo assessed that his side succeeded in suppressing the congestion rate amid the hike of the number of vehicles and rampant development projects in the capital. Thus the city’s rank on the list of the world’s most congested cities was improved.

The ease congestion, Syafrin claimed, was attributable to the expansion of odd-even traffic policy that resulted in a significant increase of the vehicles’ average speed from about 25 kilometers per hour to 33 kilometers per hour.

“That is an adequate contribution. Imagine if we do nothing, of course, we cannot maintain [the traffic slowdown at] 53 percent,” said the agency head in the Regional Legislative Council (DPRD) on Monday, February 3.

Syafrin made the statement in response to the result of the TomTom Traffic Index uploaded on the tomtom.com page, placing the country's capital on the 10th of the world’s most congested cities. However, it managed to improve the ranking from previously 7th in 2018 despite no change in the congestion rate of 53 percent.

To Syafrin, maintaining the congestion level was a remarkable achievement given the growth of the number of vehicles reaching 10 percent every year.

Moreover, the number of Transjakarta and MRT users increased by 995,000 people and 95,000 people per day, respectively. He underlined that his side will work the best to get Jakarta out of the top 10 world's most congested cities.

ADAM PRIREZA