Holiday Traffic Jams Caused by Incomplete Toll Road Construction
27 December 2015 17:32 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama said that traffic jams on inner-city toll roads that occurred on Wednesday and Thursday, December 23-24, 2015 were due to incomplete construction.
“Inner-city toll road constructions have not been completed yet,” Ahok told Tempo on Sunday, December 27, 2015.
Therefore, Ahok said that the city administration would build six lanes of inner-city toll roads with a total length of 69.77 kilometers in 2016. Ahok guaranteed that traffic would be less congested upon the completion of the project.
According to Ahok, the development of the six-lane toll roads is necessary to support the mass rapid transportation (MRT) connecting east and west Jakarta.
“The MRT network cannot be built without an alternative road from east to west,” he said.
Included in the toll road development projects are Semanan-Sunter toll road and Suter-Pulogebang, which would cost approximately Rp17 trillion (US$1.2 billion).
Earlier, long traffic jams occurred in the inner-city toll roads due to an increase of the number of vehicles leaving the city during the Christmas holiday. Reports said that it could take longer hours than usual to reach other cities from Jakarta.
GHOIDA RAHMAH
