Mangga Dua Square admits turning street into parking lot

Mangga Dua Square admits turning street into parking lot

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The management of the Mangga Dua Square (MDS) wholesale center in
Pademangan, North Jakarta, acknowledged on Wednesday that it had
taken over a 13-meter public street alongside the Ciliwung River
and turned it into private parking space.

MDS management said that the conversion was with the consent
of Governor Sutiyoso's administration.

"The conversion is stated in our block plan ... We asked the
administration for the use of the street as a parking lot and it
was approved," Hary Cahyono, a director of MDS, said in a hearing
with the City Council's commission A on legal and administrative
affairs.

Hary said that MDS and the city administration had talked of
sharing the management of the parking area.

The session on Wednesday took place after MDS's board of
directors failed to fulfill three earlier summonses.

Councillor Rois Hadayana Syaugie emphasized that the
conversion of the street into a parking lot was unlawful.

"The administration has to consult first with the council
before it allows the use of a public facility by a private
company for commercial purposes," he asserted.

"Now, people have to pay in order to pass this supposedly
public area," he added.

During the hearing, MDS also made contradictory statements
over the number of local residents recruited to work in the
wholesale center.

MDS claimed that 60 percent of its 600 employees were local
residents, while the North Jakarta administration said that MDS
had so far only taken on a few locals, leading to complaints
among residents.

Many residents have also complained that the construction of
the wholesale center, which is located on raised ground on the
riverbank, would make the area more prone to flood as the
riverbanks could not contain overflowing river water during the
wet season.

The council also received complaints from Mangga Dua Utara
residents about the increasing number of traffic accidents near
the location as the developer had raised the level of one lane of
the main access road by one-and-a-half meters, and had not built
any pedestrian bridges for people to cross safely.

Another councillor Hidayat Rohim urged MDS to immediately
build pedestrian bridges in order to curb traffic accidents
there.

"Since the increase in traffic accidents were caused by the
project, we called on the management to build the bridges. We
don't want the administration using taxpayers money to clean up a
mess made by a private company," he confided.

MDS management promised to seriously consider the suggestions
and input, promising that they would immediately follow up on
them.

"We will improve our poor communications and coordination with
the council as well as with residents so that we can settle these
problems soon," Hary said.