Tanah Abang fire victims eager for new stalls, business as usual

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Rows of small cubicles fill eight of the upper levels of the parking lot in Block F of Tanah Abang market, Central Jakarta, where construction workers are busy installing power and painting shocking pink the iron sheets that makes up the walls of the cubicles.

The traders have eagerly looked forward to the establishment of the 2,420 temporary kiosks ever since mid-February when a fire gutted the market, the biggest textile market in Southeast Asia.

The traders, mostly of small and medium scale, said they had lost their customers because they identified them only by the name of their kiosks.

"We heard that city market operator PD Pasar Jaya will hold a draw on April 8 to determine who gets which kiosk," Toni, one of the traders whose kiosks was burned in the fire, told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.

A PD Pasar Jaya staffer for Tanah Abang market, Setiawan, told the Post that a date for the draw had yet to be fixed draw but "it will be later this month".

Syafrizal, one trader who after the fire started selling his merchandise from a vehicle parked in the market, said he had lost customers and considered himself lucky if he could sell just one fourth of the merchandise he used to sell before the fire.

"Just Rp 50,000 (US$5.60) profit in one day is rare. Fortunately, business here is all run by credit, which means I don't have to pay off all my debts with the textile factories or distributors in a short time," he told the Post.

Fire gutted the market, which smoldered for one week, badly damaging three of the six blocks.

The construction of the temporary kiosks started on March 14 and is expected to be completed on April 20. The rebuilding of the actual market is expected to take a long time.

The temporary kiosks are being erected on the levels 4, 4A, 5, 5A, 6, 6A, 7, and 7A.

Parking space is available near the reservoir on Jl. Kebon Melati, around 500 meters from the market. The city administration has promised to provide shuttle buses to carry customers and traders from the parking area to the market.

The traders have repeatedly demanded that the city administration immediately renovate the burned building or provide them with strategic places from where to do business.

Since most of the traders' leases expire next year, they are worried about renewing the leases and paying rent for another 20 years in the renovated building, where rent could reach as high as Rp 170 million per square meter.

Some traders whose leases are still valid have sublet their kiosks to raise capital.

It was the traders' idea to temporarily run their businesses in the parking lot, but many of them are disappointed at the condition of the parking area and the size of the kiosks as well.

"They're too small and it will be impossible for us to display our merchandise in them. Moreover, it is too humid there and even installing air-conditioning won't help," Syafrizal said.

Each kiosk will measure one meter by two meters, with one meter between each row of kiosks. However, in the places where there are building foundations, the kiosks will be twice as wide.

"In the draw, luck will be with those who get a two square meter kiosk," market operator staff Setiawan said Post.