JAKARTA — For years, their acrid fumes have been as much a part of the Indonesian capital as the distinctive smell of the country's clove cigarettes.

Now the Jakarta city government hopes the old smoke-belching motorised rickshaws or bajajs, which Indonesians pronounce as "budge eye", may finally be able to rattle off into the sunset.

In August, Indian auto firm Bajaj Auto, maker of the three-wheel bajaj, rolled out a new compressed natural gas (CNG) model in a bid to cut pollution levels in a city almost perpetually shrouded in smog.

Six CNG-fuelled bajajs are already on the road, and government officials hope the new environmentally friendly version will eventually replace all 1,400 of the ageing, bright orange vehicles rattling around on the city's roads.

"We are optimistic that it can replace the old bajaj. The old bajaj can still operate, but gradually it will break down and the replacement will be the CNG bajaj," Nurachman, the capital's head of transportation, told Reuters.

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