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Indonesia pushes remote work, LRT travel in ‘persistently congested’ Jakarta before Asean summit
- President Joko Widodo wants Jakarta residents to ease traffic and pollution by taking to the city’s newest light rail service ‘in droves’
- Civil servants have been told to work at home, with the private sector encouraged to do the same, while schools have been urged to enact distance learning programmes
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As Jakarta gears up to host the leaders of Asean and other countries at two meetings next week, the Indonesian capital city is hoping to curb its long-standing problems with traffic congestion and air pollution with remote work policies and a new light rail service.
Indonesia is this year’s chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), and next week’s meeting involves a summit of the grouping’s national leaders, as well as the East Asia Summit (EAS) that will include representatives of major powers including China, the United States, Russia and India.
On Monday, President Joko Widodo launched the country’s latest light rail transit network, the LRT Jabodebek, which connects a main business district in central Jakarta with two satellite cities in the West Java province – Depok and Bekasi.
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“Jakarta has persistently ranked among the world’s 10 most congested cities,” Widodo said at the opening. “Every day, 996,000 vehicles enter Jakarta, causing traffic jams and pollution. We hope people will take to the LRT in droves … so that we can avoid traffic congestion and reduce pollution.”
The 32.6 trillion rupiah (US$2.1 billion) project is Indonesia’s third light rail network, and was supposed to start running for the 2018 Asian Games, but the project was delayed over funding and land acquisition constraints. Now that it is up and running, the LRT can carry up to 500,000 passengers a day.
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