Tanah Abang market to be rebuilt

JAKARTA: The city administration plans to rebuild the country's largest textile market, at Tanah Abang, destroyed by a devastating fire that raged for a week last February.

The rebuilding project will start in December this year at the latest, head of city market management at PD Pasar Jaya Syahrir Tanjung said on Monday.

"We are tendering for the demolition and rebuilding of the market," he said, adding that public bidding would run for six weeks.

Syahrir said that demolition could take three months to four months.

The process would be protracted, Syahrir said, as the workers could only work at night, as many vendors were still trading and occupied areas that had been razed by the fire.

The fire destroyed most of Blok A in the market, and parts of Blok C and Blok E, devastated some 2,420 kiosks and affected more than 7,500 kiosks. --JP