Roads, schools to be upgraded

TANGERANG: Tangerang regental administration will soon repair damaged roads and renovate hundreds of elementary schools in 26 districts.

Regent Ismet Iskandar said on Monday the administration had applied for a Rp 200 billion (US$21.73 million) loan from the West Java-run Bank Jabar to finance the project.

"We cannot rely on our budget," he said.

He said that 70 percent of a 1,100 kilometer road in the regency had been seriously damaged.

Head of the Tangerang Education Agency Mas Iman Kusnandar, said that 694 of 946 elementary schools in the regency were slowly falling apart. All of the buildings were built in 1974 and have not been renovated since. Recently, some of them collapsed. -- JP