By Tifa Asrianti

The city administration is planning to penalize busway operator PT Jakarta Ekspress Trans (JET) for service disruptions Thursday.

Transportation agency head Nurachman said a possible penalty would be to ban its operation temporarily, meaning the company would not receive any payments from the administration.

"The trouble was caused by the company's poor maintenance," he said Friday at City Hall, Central Jakarta.

Other than poor maintenance, the incident might have occurred because of poor driving.

The agency also ordered busway operator Transjakarta to issue a warning letter to the company.

On Thursday, JET's number 53 bus began emitting large amounts of smoke while passing a lane in Mangga Besar, Central Jakarta. The incident caused panic among passengers and a delay to the service.

The incident was caused by a leakage in the oil turbo charger, causing the oil to leak onto the exhaust manifold, which was high in temperature.

"The buses are five years old and we have been gradually replacing the turbo chargers. Perhaps that bus was one that hadn't been changed yet," said JET technical director Wahid Sukamto.

He said the turbo charger should have been running well as it was relatively new.

Wahid admitted reckless operation and maintenance, like warming up the engines for less than 15 minutes in the morning or stepping on the accelerator too much, would expose more heat to the turbo charger.

"Problems, like overloaded buses and potholes, make driving the buses harder that it should be," he said.

Wahid said the company performed a minor engine service once every 5,000 kilometers. The service includes changing the oil and checking machine components, the transmission and the censor doors.

He said major engine services were performed after 200,000 kilometers. The company checks the transmission oil, the gearbox oil and the diesel filter during the major service.

Wahid said the company's buses were most economical in their first five years.

On the agency's plan to punish his company, Wahid said he would leave it to Transjakarta.

"We haven't received any reprimand from the transportation agency as we only communicate with Transjakarta."

Wahid said Transjakarta evaluated its performance once a month, usually at the beginning of the month.

Transjakarta officials will check if the buses need servicing, Wahid said.

"We'll see in the next evaluation. If we manage to have everything in good condition, I'm sure our company will be just fine," he said.

Wahid also denied claims the company had bad drivers.

"We hold driving training for our drivers with police training facilities in Serpong, we send our drivers in turns every month," he said.

The company currently has 220 drivers for 91 buses. (The Jakarta Post)