KONTAN.CO.ID - JAKARTA. The Indonesian Consumers Foundation (YLKI) has criticized the poor construction site safety of infrastructure development projects, as indicated by several incidents connected to several projects in Greater Jakarta.

YLKI chairman Tulus Abadi said in Jakarta on Tuesday that the government should focus not only on the acceleration of infrastructure projects, but also on adequate safety measures at construction sites.

“The implementation of accelerated infrastructure development is akin to a reckless angkot [public minivan] driver pushing to make a deposit. The important thing is to make [the deposit], without prioritizing the safety, security and comfort of the passengers,” Tulus said as quoted by kompas.com.

He was referring to the practice among public minivan operators, which require its drivers to deposit a certain amount of money each day to pay the vehicle's rental fee.

On Tuesday morning, a section of the Bekasi-Cawang-Kampung Melayu (Becakayu) toll road collapsed in Kebon Nanas, East Jakarta, injuring seven workers.

It was the latest accident that followed several others, including the collapse of an underpass retaining wall near Soekarno-Hatta International Airport that caused one death, the collapse of a crane on the double-track railway in Jatinegara, killing four people, and the collapse of six girders on the Antasari-Depok toll road under development along Jl. TB Simatupang in South Jakarta, which damaged an empty truck.

Tulus said that the accidents showed that safety measures were not a high priority in the construction of infrastructure projects. “These accidents are partly due to construction failure. The accidents also indicate that the infrastructure projects were not well-planned or that they lacked rigorous and consistent supervision,” he said.

He added that such accidents could result from failures during either the planning or construction phase.

Tulus thus called on the government to establish a team to carry out forensic engineering to investigate the cause of the accidents.

Editor: Barratut Taqiyyah Rafie