City agency says second water taxi is in the works

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The city administration is eyeing the Angke River in North Jakarta as its next water taxi route, despite the serious shortcomings of its Ciliwung River pilot project.

"The Angke River is a potential route for waterway transportation," the head of the Jakarta Public Works Agency, Wisnu Subagyo Yusuf, told reporters Friday.

The agency is planning to adjust the height of three bridges along the Angke River at Pesing, Genit and Teluk Gong to allow water taxis to pass beneath.

"The bridges will have to be at least 2.75 meters above the surface of the water," he said. "But the proposal will only be carried out next year."

Separately, the head of the Jakarta Transportation Agency, Nurrachman, told The Jakarta Post that his office had not yet discussed adding new water taxi routes, preferring to concentrate on the existing route first.

The water taxi route running along the Ciliwung River is to open to the public on June 2. Initially it will only operate on Saturdays and Sundays, from 7 to 9 a.m. and from 4 to 6 p.m. The transportation agency has yet to decide on the fare price.

In trials earlier this month, the water taxis were often forced to stop by garbage clogging their motors.

During the trial runs, two boats with a capacity of 25 people each covered the 2 kilometer route, stopping at landings in Halimun, Dukuh Atas and Karet.

The city administration has allocated around Rp 17 billion (US$1.8 million) for the operational costs of the water taxis.

The Ciliwung River is the biggest of 13 rivers passing through the capital. It is severely polluted with household and industrial waste. Both the city administration and the central government have attempted numerous times to clean the river, but to no avail.

Wisnu said he would order a double net be installed in front of the Manggarai sluice gate in order to prevent garbage reaching the water taxi route.

"We hope people can learn to take care of the river and not throw garbage in it anymore," he said.

He added that the administration had allocated Rp 33 billion per annum to remove 240,000 cubic meters of trash from the city's rivers.