Council upset with Tangerang project
Council upset with Tangerang project
JAKARTA (JP): The Tangerang legislative council has urged its
administration to cancel a deal with a private company to build a
bus terminal and shopping center on the old market site.
The chairman of the Commission A of the council, Risalah
Mastjek, told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday that PT Betania Multi
Sarana had not yet started the project which should have been
completed last year.
"The administration should give a deadline to the private
investor and ask the investor to take the project or leave it,"
Mastjek said.
Mastjek, however, said that the council could not force the
regency to cancel the deal.
"Everything is in the hands of the regency administration," he
said.
A reliable source at the regency office said in a separate
interview on Wednesday that the 1991 deal stipulates that the
regency provide the land and the investor fund the project on a
Build Operate Transfer (BOT) basis.
The official, who asked for anonymity, said building the
shopping center and terminal would cost Rp 30 billion (US$13.04
million).
The deal was signed soon after the old market burned down in
1991. At the time, the regency official denied a shopping center
was planned for the site even though a huge billboard advertising
a new shopping center on the market site had been installed
before the fire.
The area around the Ciputat market and local transit vehicle
terminal has since become notorious for its horrendous traffic,
potholed roads and garbage heaps.
The regency ignored residents' complaints until a group of
students demonstrated at the legislative council's office on
Monday.
The demonstrators demanded that the regency pay attention to
the fate of Ciputat, which they described as no man's land.
The students, including those from the Islamic State
Institute, Syarif Hidayatullah, and local high schools, also want
the regency to improve the welfare of people living in Ciputat.
The protesters urged the administration to limit the size of
the shopping center, and asked them to quickly return the old
vendors to the traditional market. (04)