City to renovate the planetarium

City to renovate the planetarium

JAKARTA (JP): Governor Surjadi Soedirdja has approved a plan to renovate and modernize the planetarium, located at the Taman Ismail Marzuki art center, Central Jakarta.

The governor said yesterday that the 26-year-old planetarium should be improved because most of its equipment is obsolete and not produced by the original factory in Germany anymore.

However, Surjadi urged the modernization team to thoroughly study a plan to change the equipment with other brands. "It needs careful study to replace the equipment with other brands. Find out if the new equipment gives a technical problem and make sure it will not be much more expensive than the old brand," he said.

The governor also said that he approves of the cooperation of Mitsui & Co. Ltd of Japan to provide new equipment for the planetarium.

The Japanese government had previously pledged new equipment for the planetarium.

In a release made available to The Jakarta Post yesterday, the governor said that the director general manager of Mitsui's Indonesian office, Junji Sato, would inquire about the Japanese government's promise. (yns)