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.