Ponco apologizes over illegal tunnel at own hotel

Ponco apologizes over illegal tunnel at own hotel

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Businessman Ponco Sutowo, majority shareholder of the Hilton
Hotel in Central Jakarta, met with Governor Sutiyoso on Thursday
to apologize for the construction of a 210-meter underground
tunnel linking the hotel and the Jakarta Convention Center (JCC)
without securing a permit.

"Pak Ponco came to apologize for building a tunnel from the
Hilton Hotel to JCC without our consent. The hotel management has
acknowledged it was at fault," Sutiyoso said at City Hall.

The governor said that the administration warned the hotel
management not to repeat such a mistake in the future.

Ponco said that he had told workers to stop construction
pending the issuance of a permit from the City Construction
Supervision and Regulation Agency (P2B).

"We had no intention at all to ignore our obligation to obtain
a permit from the administration," Ponco said, adding that he had
clarified the case with Sutiyoso.

According to Ponco, the construction of the tunnel was part of
the hotel's preparations ahead of the Asian-African Summit that
will be held at the JCC from April 22 to April 24.

Most participants will stay at the Hilton Hotel during the
meeting, just 200 meters from the summit's venue.

Sutiyoso's administration sealed off the construction work of
the planned 210-meter long tunnel measuring nine meters high and
eight meters wide late in January this year.

Sources at the administration said that the stoppage was in
retaliation for the State Secretary's refusal to allow the
monorail project to pass through the Senayan sports complex that
is under the management of the State Secretariat.

The tunnel construction, done by PT Indo Build Co., was based
on an instruction from the State Secretariat. The developer said
it had applied for a building permit with the city administration
on Dec. 10 last year, but the City Construction Supervision and
Regulation Agency head Djumhana Tjakrawirja said on Thursday that
the developer had only arranged a building permit following the
stoppage by the agency.

The new tunnel would have been parallel to the existing one.

But why the city administration required the developer,
instead of project head, the State Secretariat, to elaborate on
the reason for the new tunnel remains a big question.