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)