JAKARTA ~

Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama admitted here on Wednesday that Jakarta was the most congested city in the world as found in a recent survey.

“That is true. Jakarta is the most congested. You can see traffic jams are found almost across the capital city,” he said.

Basuki blamed the situation to the absence of a railway system that reaches all parts of the city.

“Because we have not had a railway system of mass transportation certainly traffic is jammed. Even in Japan that has already had a railway system traffic there still snarls. So, it is no surprise for traffic congestion to happen in Jakarta,” he said.

The governor said that the railway system should have been developed years ago, adding “he is now building a mass rapid transport or a mono-rail system.” “That is why we are now buiding it. This is the homework that should have been finished 30 to 40 years ago. So, now we must be patient” he said.

Basuki said traffic jams in Jakarta have also been caused by irresponsible parties who have ignored his instruction to conduct order operations.

The head of the city’s transportation service, Benjamin Bukit, said traffic congestion in the city was also caused by car growth which is not parallel with road development.

“We cannot stop motor vehicle growth while roads only increase 0,01 percent. So, the road development does not catch up with car growth,” he said.

Bukit said the government may only take a maximum effort to overcome the situation.

“We have a macro-strategy which we will carry out as best as possible,” he said.

According to a Castrol’s Magnatec Stop-Start Index Jakarta is the most congested city in the world with an average of 33,240 times of stop-move process a year.

The index is based on navigation data of Tom Tom users, a GPS device to count the number of stops and moves made each kilometer which is later multiplied by average distance covered a year in 78 countries.

Other cities in Indonesia included in the most congested cities include Surabaya, the capital of East Java or the second biggest city in the country which is ranked the fourth with jams averaging at 29,880 a year.