Thousands are left stranded owing to MPR traffic detours<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Thousands of passengers of public transportation
\nvehicles were stranded on Thursday due to the closure of numerous
\nstreets around the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) building,
\nwhere a four-day special session ends on Friday.<\/p>\n
The city police decided to close the toll road and Jl. Gatot
\nSubroto between the Semanggi cloverleaf and the Slipi
\nintersection from 6 a.m. and diverted traffic elsewhere.<\/p>\n
Dozens of police officers and soldiers were deployed in the
\nstreets, even small streets leading to the MPR building, such as
\nJl. Patal Senayan and Jl. Simpruk, to direct motorists to take
\nother routes.<\/p>\n
Passengers heading for offices on Jl. Jend. Sudirman, Jl.
\nThamrin and Jl. Gatot Subroto were forced to stand in bus
\nshelters for ages.<\/p>\n
People in their own cars were delayed for hours as they sought
\nalternative routes through side streets.<\/p>\n
Some complained bitterly about the closures as it resulted in
\nthem reaching their destinations hours later than usual.<\/p>\n
\"The government has asked us to be calm and continue working,
\nbut why are the roads closed,\" Achmadi, 35, a Tangerang resident,
\ntold Antara.<\/p>\n
Achmadi, who was heading for Grogol in West Jakarta, said that
\nhe was forced to get off the Tangerang-Jakarta toll road at Kebon
\nJeruk since the Tomang toll gate had been blocked.<\/p>\n
Even though numerous people were late for work, employers said
\nthey could understand the situation.<\/p>\n
In the afternoon, hundreds of passengers on Jl. Cikini Raya,
\nJl. Salemba Raya and Jl. Senen Raya in Central Jakarta could not
\nhide their impatience as they could not find public
\ntransportation to take them home as security personnel had
\nblocked one end of the street.<\/p>\n
Rusidah, 40, a restaurant employee, complained that she had
\nwaited for a Kopaja 502 minibus for almost an hour to take her to
\nKampung Rambutan in East Jakarta.<\/p>\n
\"Actually, I wanted to join my colleagues who decided to walk,
\nbut my legs are still painful after I was hurt last week,\" she
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
She said that her boss decided to close the restaurant at
\nabout 2 p.m. as he was worried about the possibility of rioting.<\/p>\n
Rudianto who worked at Bank Umum Nasional at the Plaza Atrium
\nshopping center in Central Jakarta, was also \"trapped\" in the
\ncomplex as, in addition to the bus shortage, it was raining in
\nthe area.<\/p>\n
\"It's better to wait here (inside the bank) until the rain
\nstops. Anyway, the bus I usually take has been overcrowded all
\nday,\" said Rudianto, who lives in Tangerang.<\/p>\n
While the situation caused hardship to many people, others
\nbenefited, especially ojek (motorcycle taxi) drivers.<\/p>\n
Misdar, an ojek driver who used to operate around Plaza
\nSenayan on Jl. Asia Afrika, South Jakarta, said that he had
\nearned about Rp 30,000 from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. alone.<\/p>\n
\"It is difficult to get such an amount of money on normal
\ndays,\" Misdar said, adding that he usually made between Rp 15,000
\nand Rp 20,000 the whole day.<\/p>\n
He said many employees of state-television station TVRI and
\nworkers at the Office of the State Minister of Youth Affairs and
\nSport were forced to take ojek to get to work.<\/p>\n
He charged them between Rp 2,500 and Rp 3,000 each, depending
\non the distances, more than double the ordinary fee of only Rp
\n1,000 a trip.<\/p>\n
Other ojek drivers, including those in Slipi in West Jakarta
\nand in other areas, also admitted to landing a windfall from the
\nsituation.<\/p>\n
Many offices and shops around the affected areas closed much
\nearlier in anticipation of possible riots.<\/p>\n
Most of the shops at Plaza Senayan on Jl. Asia Afrika, for
\nexample, shut at 11 a.m., according to Soleh, one of the shopping
\ncenter's security guards.<\/p>\n
He said that all the shops were closed at 5 p.m, five hours
\nearlier than usual.<\/p>\n
\"The shop operators decided to close their shops because there
\nwere only a few buyers today,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Yaya, a security guard at Atrium Plaza in Senen, said the
\nmanagement decided to close the complex at 2:30 p.m. as many
\nconvoys of students demonstrations were in the area.<\/p>\n
Practically all the other shops in the area also closed hours
\nearlier than usual.<\/p>\n
Similar scenes could also be seen along Jl. Pahlawan Revolusi,
\nEast Jakarta, following rumors that a shopping center in Pondok
\nGede, Bekasi, had been burned by rioters.<\/p>\n
A fire destroyed a cinema complex and several shops in the
\nRamayana shopping center in Pondok Gede, but no fatalities were
\nreported.<\/p>\n
The fire, which is estimated to have caused hundreds of
\nmillions of rupiah in losses, started early Thursday morning took
\nfirefighters two hours to extinguish.<\/p>\n
Bekasi Police chief. Adjie Rustam Ramdja denied that the
\nshopping center was burned by rioters, saying that an electricity
\nshort circuit caused the fire. (jun\/ind)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/thousands-are-left-stranded-owing-to-mpr-traffic-detours-1447893297",
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