Site of Maruarar-Hercules Argument in Tanah Abang Was Once a Red District

The land that will be turned into a new rusun (affordable housing) near the railway embankment close to Tanah Abang Station in Central Jakarta was previously a slum settlement and illegal entertainment area. People called it a ‘red district’. However, the land is now used for vehicle parking.

The location is near Jalan Jati Bunder and Jalan Jembatan Tinggi, or behind Tanah Abang Market Block G. This land is actually called “Lahan Bongkaran”.

According to security personnel near the land, it was originally a slum area near the railway tracks and was planned to be demolished during Governor Fauzi Bowo’s (Foke) period. However, the demolition was only realised during Governor Joko Widodo’s (Jokowi) tenure.

“It was actually a slum settlement here, planned since Mr Foke’s time to build rusun, but it wasn’t achieved,” said a resident at the location when met on Thursday (9/4/2026).

Unfortunately, after the demolition during Governor Jokowi’s era, the rusun construction was not realised again. However, since then, the land has been fenced off by PT Kereta Api Indonesia (Persero).

Although fenced, traders returned to the land and used it for selling, so it also became the location of Pasar Tasik before being moved to Cideng in 2018.

After that, the land remained empty and the rusun construction was still not realised. In the end, the land was used as a parking area for logistics trucks and traders’ private vehicles.

“Basically, since Foke’s time, through Jokowi’s time as Governor of DKI Jakarta, even until now, the construction has never been realised, so it stayed empty, and because it was empty, it was used for parking,” he explained.

For information, Lahan Bongkaran was once a prostitution location in Tanah Abang. This location was also cleaned up in relation to the rules launched by Governor Jokowi and his Deputy Basuki Tjahaja Purnama (Ahok) in 2013.

Actually, Bongkaran has been cleaned up many times starting from the early 1980s. Even so, dirty transactions still occurred there.

The place was so hidden that during Deputy Governor Ahok’s period, he admitted he previously did not know there was a prostitution site in the Tanah Abang area.