Parking lot for shoppers provided

Parking lot for shoppers provided

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

City administration is preparing a 2.9-hectare plot of land in
the Waduk Melati area, Central Jakarta, as a temporary parking
lot for visitors to Tanah Abang market in order to ease the flow
of traffic around the market and surrounding areas.

It is also to provide 10 shuttle buses to take visitors from
the parking lot to the market, free of charge.

Governor Sutiyoso stressed that starting Monday, all cars
belonging to shoppers would be prohibited from parking at the
market and on side streets leading to the market.

"I do not want to see cars parked at the market and on the
street, especially on Jl. KH Mas Mansyur, as they cause serious
traffic problems," Sutiyoso said after visiting the parking lot
on Monday.

He ordered officials at the City Transportation Agency to tow
any cars parked in prohibited areas, if their owners did not heed
warnings.

The 2.9-hectare land is part of a 5.3-hectare plot in Waduk
Melati owned by the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA)
that has been leased to the administration. The temporary parking
lot will be used until Tanah Abang market has been restored,
while the administration will build a business center on the
remaining 2.4-hectare land.

President Director Prabowo Soenirman of city-owned market
operator PD Pasar Jaya said the parking lot would hold about
1,500 cars.

Prabowo said the reconstruction of Tanah Abang market would
begin in early December after the Idul Fitri holiday and is
expected to finish within 14 to 16 months.

About 2,400 kiosks in the market, deemed the largest textile
market in Southeast Asia, were destroyed by fire in February.