Jakarta to set up cross-agency coordination unit

The Jakarta Government is planning a unit to coordinate infrastructure projects across the city’s agencies, central government, and state-owned companies.

The city is concerned that poor coordination of work across agencies has damaged its infrastructure, raising concerns about their safety, said Yuli Hartono, head of the city’s Industry and Energy Agency.

“The projects seem to have no synergy. Every [agency] has its project,” he said.

For instance, installing cables for street lights saw work done by the parks agency and then again by the public works agency.

“We are trying to wire new street lights and we can’t because we have utility and fiber optic cables to consider,” he said. Repetitive digging of roads has led to underground cables being left without protective covering.

“The central government and companies will be obliged to submit plans to the city government to synchronize the projects,” he added.