The city administration and the council agreed to allocate Rp 22 billion (US$2.4 million) to repair damaged roads across the city, a councillor said Monday.

The majority of the budget would go to repairing roads in East and South Jakarta, chairman of City Council Commission D on development affairs, Sayogo Hendrosubroto, said.

Last month, City Public Works Agency head Wisnu Subagya Yusuf proposed Rp 52 billion, but the council did not agree on the figure and cut it by more than half.

"We did, however, add another Rp 7 billion to the proposed Rp 6 billion to repair roads in Eastern Jakarta," Sayogo told The Jakarta Post Monday.

He said that South Jakarta and East Jakarta were most affected by the damage. The areas host the city's business centers and main lines for the transportation of goods.

Heavy rains and poor drainage had caused water to sit in large pools that, coupled with the city's heavy traffic, have corroded streets' surfaces. For several weeks, motorists have been forced to maneuver around and over bumps and sometimes into potholes on many of the city streets.

In South Jakarta, potholes and cracks can be seen, for example, on Jl. Gatot Subroto, Jl. M.T. Haryono and Jl. Casablanca.

The city's inner and outer ring roads in North and East Jakarta are also severely damaged and have caused massive traffic congestion leading to Tanjung Priok port.

The Indonesian Exporters Association said delivery costs had increased by around 10 to 15 percent due to unpredictable arrival times of exported goods at the port.

The damage may have serious repercussions to the Indonesian economy, as a government report claims, with up to 60 percent of the country's exports and imports going through Tanjung Priok.

Car and motorcycle drivers have also suffered with the dangerous road surfaces. City Police recorded some 538 road accidents in January, an increase from last year's 453 accidents (the average figure).