TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Jakarta Transportation Agency decided to impose traffic diversion in the Hotel Indonesia or HI roundabout area on Jalan MH Thamrin, Central Jakarta, to break down congestion.

The agency’s acting head Emanuel Kristanto explained that traffic jams continued to occur in the area albeit with the implementation of the odd-even policy. He assessed that eliminating congestion in the capital city was not enough by just enforcing that traffic system.

“Odd-even policy is just one of the treatments [to reduce congestion]. Traffic diversion must also be enforced,” said Emanuel as quoted from the National Traffic Management Center’s (NTMC) page today, July 5, 2022.

The trial of the traffic diversion would last for the next week, July 4-10, 2022, from 16:00 until 21:00 Jakarta time.

He reiterated that this was aimed at easing the heavy traffic from Jalan Jenderal Sudirman to Jalan MH Thamrin. “It is meeting points of vehicles heading to the left (north to east) and vehicles heading straight to the south (from the north). We are trying to break down [the congestion] and block it (the traffic),” he said.

According to Emanuel, the heavy traffic at HI Roundabout was attributable to public activities and more companies no longer implementing the work from home (WFH) policy.

DICKY KURNIAWAN

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