Car repair shops reprimanded

JAKARTA (JP): The City Land Transportation and Traffic Control Agency (DLLAJ) has reprimanded 104 vehicle repair shops in the city's five mayoralties for parking vehicles at the roadside or on sidewalks.

"We have warned them because they use sidewalks and roadsides," said Herman Tonglo Langi, the division head of public transportation control at DLLAJ.

Herman said over the weekend the agency reprimanded 85 vehicle repair shops for the violation in July, 15 in August and four in September.

Herman said the agency launched the traffic operation in line with a Gubernatorial Instruction barring vehicle repair shops from parking their customers' vehicles at roadsides or on sidewalks.

"This operation is aimed at easing traffic problems in some areas," he said, adding that the operation will be concentrated on main roads which are used by public transit vehicles.

Data at DLLAJ shows there are 149 workshops in South Jakarta, 42 in Central Jakarta, 26 in West Jakarta, 39 in North Jakarta and 30 in East Jakarta. Many of them are located along main roads.

Herman said that during the three-month operation the agency has ticketed 440 vehicle owners for parking their vehicles in unauthorized places.

"We ticketed 93 vehicles in July , 234 in August and 113 in September," he said.

"They were caught red-handed parking the vehicles they were repairing at roadsides and on sidewalks," Herman said.

When asked about the possibility of revoking the repair shops' licenses, Herman said DLLAJ had no authority to do so. "The workshops' licenses are issued by the Ministry of Industry, not by our office," he said.(yns)