IPB campus to be tourist destination

BOGOR: Around 200 hectares of the Bogor Institute of Agriculture's (IPB) new campus in Darmaga subdistrict will be converted into an "agro-edu" tourism park. Construction is expected to be finished by 2005.

Dean of the university, Ahmad Ansori Mattjik, said on Tuesday that the campus now has several blocks planted with, among other trees, the Zalacca palm, or salak tree, durian trees, and breadfruit trees. The park is also home to five deer.

"We hope the park can be an agricultural tourism attraction, but we will maintain its educational function... without special promotion, hundreds of people have already visited the park every weekend now," Mattjik said. -- JP