Tangerang to have mall big shopping
Multa Fidrus, The Jakarta Post, Tangerang
The controversy-laden construction of the largest mall in Tangerang municipality is near completion and ready for operation, and will need some 10,000 new employees.
"Job vacancies are still wide open until December. We are looking for parking attendants, janitorial staff, security guards, salespersons and managers," PT Lippo Karawaci spokesman M. Faisal told The Jakarta Post recently.
PT Lippo is the developer that funded the project to build the Metropolis Town Square integrated entertainment and mall building, which is located at Modernland housing estate on Jl. Sudirman, Cikokol, Tangerang.
The project however, has got on the wrong side of the municipal public order agency on at least two occasions, when the construction area was sealed off because the developer PT Modernland Realty allegedly did not have its construction permits up to the standard that the agency requires.
Dafyar Eliadi, head of the Capital Investment and Permit office with the administration claimed that the mall, which is located on the Situ Gede lakeshore, was in violation of municipal Bylaw No. 7/2001 which specifies the distance that building can be from a river or lake.
The bylaw stipulates a building should be at least 50 meters away from the edge of the lake.
The heated debate between the administration officials on whether a construction permit could be issued for PT Modernland ended when Mayor M. Thamrin decided to transform the Cikokol vegetable market, which is near the Metropolis Mall site, into a trade center due to its strategic location at the intersection of Tangerang, Jakarta, Bogor and Merak in Banten.
The administration argued that vegetable vendors in Cikokol had illegally opened business in the area, while the original master plan stipulates that the area was designated as a green area. Therefore, the administration built the Tanah Tinggi Market to relocate the vendors.
PT Modernland Realty spokesman Ebrwon Lubuk said that the developer has created a manmade lake -- the size of which was only around 50 meters by 10 meters compared to the size of the natural lake of around 200 meters by 20 meters -- and presented the manmade lake to the administration as an exchange.
He also denied potential environmental damage due to the presence of the mall, even though the construction of the mall considerably reduced the size of the natural lake.
"How many unemployed people are there here due to the closure of a number of factories in Tangerang? How many school graduates can we save (by the presence of the mall)? Isn't it more realistic to think of how to solve unemployment?" he asked.