Hans David Tampubolon, Jakarta – You know things are really bad when the military is called in, and that is exactly what the Jakarta administration did Monday when it established a new taskforce charged with mitigating traffic in the capital.

Faced with traffic congestion of epic proportions, the city administration and the Jakarta Police included the Indonesian Military (TNI) and the City Transportation Agency in the taskforce.

However, the military was not called on because of its credentials for problem solving and swift implementation. The Jakarta Police's Traffic Management Center coordinator Comr. Indra Ja'far said the TNI had been included so that it could clamp down on its own members who ran protection rackets and provided security for illegal parking spots and public transportation vehicles. "This time we want to be more comprehensive in our efforts," Indra said.

Indra said the new taskforce would consist of 3,000 personnel, including officers from the City Transportation Agency. The personnel would be deployed to the streets to manage traffic and enforce the rules of the road.

Those duties would include stopping illegal on-street parking, controlling the behavior and driving of public transportation vehicle drivers, and mitigating flood-related congestion, such as by stopping motorists from taking shelter under overpasses during downpours.

This is the second time in less than six months that the government has announced it will set up a team to handle traffic problems in the capital.

In September, the central government appointed head of the Presidential Work Unit for Development Monitoring and Control Kuntoro Mangkusubroto as chairman of a team tasked with tackling the capital's congestion problems.

One of the proposals made by the team was reviving the city's terminated monorail project.

The new team produced a total of 17 proposals, including clearing the TransJakarta busway lanes of private vehicles, opening more busway corridors, implementing an electronic road pricing system to replace the three-in-one car pooling policy, and constructing a mass rapid transit system.

Traffic congestion has worsened in the city over the past few years. Torrential downpours have literally brought the city to a stop, trapping motorists in traffic snarls on inundated roads for hours.

One such massive gridlock occurred on Oct. 25, when torrential rain triggered flash floods throughout the capital, filling the city's clogged drains, and prompting cries of outrage from the city's motorists, some of whom waited in traffic jams for more than five hours on their way home from work.

However, conditions are only slightly improved during the dry season. The growth of private car ownership has skyrocketed amid a lack of any credible wide-ranging public transportation system.

Currently, Jakarta is home to 11.3 million motor vehicles, a number that grows at the alarming rate of 1,500 new motorcycles and 500 new cars a day. Jakarta has 7,650 kilometers of road, which are expanded on average by 0.01 percent annually.

The Indonesian Transportation Society (MTI) reported that an ideal scenario would be one in which 65 percent of the city's residents used public transport. The MTI also revealed that currently more than 98 percent of Jakartans use private vehicles, and that 2 percent use public transportation.