Fire concern changes Tanah Abang market design
Fire concern changes Tanah Abang market design
Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Advice from the City Fire Department on the difficulty to
extinguish fires in public places has prompted the city market
operator PD Pasar Jaya to change the design of Tanah Abang
textile market in Central Jakarta.
With the new design, the market will have 16 floors above
ground and three below. It is different from the original design
in which the market was to have seven floors above ground and
seven underground.
"The fire department's concern was our main consideration to
revise the Tanah Abang market reconstruction design," PD Pasar
Jaya president director Prabowo Soenirman told The Jakarta Post
recently.
The revised design was approved by related agencies in the
city administration recently and the 36-month reconstruction
project will start in mid-December at the former location of the
old market.
The city's top fireman, Johnny Pangaribuan, had warned the
administration that having seven underground levels could create
more problems for firefighters in the event of another blaze.
Firemen needed five days to completely extinguish a massive
fire at the four-story tall Tanah Abang market, which used to be
the largest textile market in Southeast Asia, on Feb. 19. A total
of 2,420 of the market's 7,594 shops were incinerated.
A report on the fire by Tempo weekly last March titled Ada
Tomy di 'Tenabang?', which insinuates that businessman Tomy
Winata was responsible for the fire, has resulted in the ongoing
legal battle between the weekly and the businessman.
Johnny said that smoke would be the main problem in a fire as
each firefighter only had between 20 and 30 minutes before the
oxygen in his tank ran out.
According to Prabowo, the total investment for the new market
would be approximately Rp 600 billion (US$70.59 million)
apparently provided by the market operator's business partners,
who are set to be announced publicly early next month.
He guaranteed that he would offer special kiosk leases for
some 2,200 traders from the old market who lost their shops. Each
kiosk, measuring four square meters, would be leased for Rp 20
million compared to the regular price of some Rp 100 million.