East Flood Canal to reach sea within days

Indah Setiawati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Tue, 12/29/2009 8:29 PM

Governor Fauzi Bowo on Tuesday announced the East Flood Canal (BKT) would reach the sea on Dec. 31.

“As we have promised, on Dec. 31, the BKT will connect with the sea. But we have to admit that there are certain spots that haven't reached the required width,” he said on Tuesday.

Head of the Ciliwung-Cisadane Flood Bureau at the Public Works Ministry, Pitoyo Subandrio, confirmed the information, saying the width at some parts of the canal was still 15 meters from the required 70 meters width.

He said the areas needing widening were at the Kali Sunter bridge in East Jakarta, Pahlawan Revolusi bridge, ex-the power substation, Pondok Kopi, Haji Miran, Rawa Bebek and Marunda in North Jakarta.

The unfinished areas, he said, would not hinder the flow of water to the sea as the depth of the locations had reached four to seven meters.

“We have pushed the contractors to connect the canal to the sea by the end of December to mitigate the annual flood in January,” Pitoyo said.

He said the construction of the East Flood Canal was 96.5 percent complete, with the inspection roads, bridges and wire fence as the remaining projects.

He believed the contractors would finish the rest of the project before their contract term finished in June because the city had settled the hardest part – the land procurement – on Dec. 18.