Mall construction site shut down

TANGERANG: The municipal public order agency has shut down the construction site of the Metropolis shopping mall at the Modern Land housing complex on Jl. Sudirman in Tangerang as the developer failed to obtain a building permit from the administration.

"They have been working on the site for a week, but the developer has not applied to the municipal capital Investment and Permit Office (KPKPM) for a permit yet," Agus R. Wahyudi, the agency's chief of the public order affairs department, said on Wednesday.

However, a staff member of the developer, PT Modernland Realty, claimed that the company had received verbal authorization from Tangerang Mayor M. Thamrin.

The source, who asked not to be named, said that the five- story building with a total area of 46,000 square meters was being funded by PT Lippo Karawaci.

All of the construction work is being carried out by Modernland. However, Agus said that the agency would allow the developer to proceed with the construction if it produced a building permit issued by the administration.

"Verbal authorization, from whoever it was, cannot be accepted as legal," he said.--JP