Jakarta – Thousands of dirty and noisy motorised rickshaws in Indonesia's capital may soon go the same way as their pedal-powered predecessors – rounded up and dumped into the Java Sea.

City administrators trying to clean up the city hope that pedicab drivers will begin replacing their ageing Indian-made vehicles, known as the bajaj, with a cleaner, four-wheeled local version, The Jakarta Post reported yesterday.

In 1999, Jakarta officials dumped tens of thousands of cycle rickshaws into the waters off Jakarta bay, complaining that they led to traffic congestion. The move was criticised by both environmentalists and activists working on behalf of the urban poor.

"If an agreement [with drivers] could be reached, the 14,000 bajaj will be dumped into the sea," Mr Rustam Effendy, head of the city's transportation department, told the daily.

Jakarta officials have long tried to get rid of the popular bajajs, whose two-stroke engines belch out clouds of thick smoke and clog traffic outside markets and popular entertainment spots.