Park maintenance to be handed over to private firms

JAKARTA (JP): The City Administration's plan to privatize the maintenance of parks across the capital has so far received responses from two parties, which have expressed their enthusiasm to take care of the vast park at the Semanggi cloverleaf in the heart of the city.

Speaking on Monday before members of the City Council Commission D on development affairs, City Park Agency head Dadang Ruskandar identified the two private firms as PT. Kawan Lama Sejahtera heavy equipment supplier and PT. Hantar Mandiri courier firm.

Under the offer, which was introduced some six months ago, the firms -- in return for maintaining the parks -- would be allowed to place their companies' names at the signboard in the respective park.

"Each of the companies have to pay Rp 300 million (US$33,330) per annum to the City Administration (his agency) for the maintenance fee of a spot in the Semanggi Park," Dadang told the councillors.

The signboards and their size would be similar to those used for advertising on the sides of major streets here, he said.

The only difference is that the content should be in the form of a public service advertisement board with the logo of the company put at the lower part of the billboard.

Located in a prime site in the capital, the Semanggi park is divided into four sections with a total size of 105,000 square meters.

Jakarta used to be home to 529 parks covering an area of 177.29 square kilometers. Currently, it only has some 220 parks remaining as more than 300 former parks have already been converted for other purposes, such as trading sites, fuel stations, community centers and police posts.

According to Dadang, the project for the Semanggi Park would be started soon, hopefully before the end of this year.

"For the next fiscal year, we will offer Suropati Park in Central Jakarta for the same project," Dadang said, referring to the park located at the plush Menteng residential area which has become a popular site for anti-Soeharto protesters.

In about two or three years from now, he hoped, the maintenance of all the parks in the capital would be under the responsibility of private parties.

The City Park Agency spends some Rp 11.6 billion per year for the maintenance of the parks.

Under the current regulation, companies placing commercial billboards are required to pay between Rp 4,000 and Rp 5,000 per square meter per day to the City Administration.

Dadang said the funds collected from the interested parties participating in the project would be allocated for the planting of trees in the slum areas of the capital.

"The first slum sites to get the greening project with funds collected from the Semanggi park would be those at Jatinegara in East Jakarta and Tanjung Priok in North Jakarta," he said.

In response to Dadang's explanation, Commission D chairman Sayogo Hendrosubroto said that the commission highly praised the idea to privatize the parks' maintenance, hoping that the agency could now focus its work on improving the city's slum areas.

With the National Monument (Monas) project, Dadang said the rehabilitation of the park around the monument would be accomplished by the end of the 2001 financial year.

So far, the agency has spent some Rp 30 billion of the funds allocated for the project.

"The park is the biggest green area in the capital, and by the end of the rehabilitation project we expect that the park could also serve as the lung of the city," he added.(dja)