Jakarta's Traffic Nightmare

“The Jakarta administration still issues permits for commercial buildings such as malls in areas where they are no longer suitable, creating more congestion,” Indonesia Transportation Society expert Muslich Asikin said.

“The average speed of vehicles in the city is now about 20 kilometres (12.5 miles) per hour. From the business perspective, that’s not acceptable.” Indonesia has one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, with output expansion expected to top six percent this year and next. Yet its ports, roads and airports are hopelessly inadequate for the pace of growth it hopes to sustain, according to investors and analysts.

The government has announced plans to spend $140 billion on infrastructure until 2014, more than half of which will have to come from the private sector. That is the year some experts predict Jakarta will reach “total gridlock”, the point at which every main road and back street is almost permanently clogged with barely moving, pollution-spewing cars.

So a key item on the infrastructure shopping list is a Jakarta urban rail link, known as the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) project. The first, north-south phase, costing $1.78 billion and funded by Japanese aid loans, will stretch 15.2 kilometres with 13 stations.

A second section with more than eight stations is targeted for completion in 2018. But an east-west corridor is currently only in the study phase and may not be built until 2027.

Jakarta MRT spokesman Manpalagupta Sitorus said phase one construction would begin around mid-2012 and it would be operational in late 2016 — too late to avoid some analysts’ 2014 doomsday scenario.