W. Jakarta plans wholesale market

JAKARTA (JP): West Jakarta mayoralty plans to build a 15- hectare wholesale market in the Rawa Buaya subdistrict of Cengkareng to supply commodities coming from West Java and Sumatra.

Mayor Sutardjianto said yesterday that the proposed market would be more cost efficient for trucks carrying goods because it would shorten their journey.

"All this time, trucks loaded with commodities from the western part of West Java, Lampung and other areas in Sumatra have had to go to East Jakarta (to the Kramat Jati wholesale market)."

The proposed market would also help keep the city's streets clean of dust and wet soil normally dropped by passing trucks, Sutardjianto said.

"That's why we need support to realize our plan," he said in a meeting with members of City Council's Commission B for economic affairs and Commission D for development affairs.

He said the mayoralty was yet to determine the construction costs for the planned market, saying that the matter was still being discussed with Jakarta Chambers of Commerce and Industry, which offered its assistance to develop West Jakarta.

The head of Commission B, Djafar Badjeber, said the commission supported the mayoralty's plan because the city needed more wholesale markets.

"However, I hope that the mayoralty studies its plan carefully so that in the future the market won't be pulled down for other purposes," he said.

A member of the commission, Agus S. Selman, reminded the mayoralty not to spend as much on the Rawa Buaya wholesale market as was spent on the Kramat Jati market, which cost Rp 126 billion (US$19.4 million) to build.

"The most important thing is to arrange the market in an orderly fashion so that it can support activities properly," Agus said.

"Some modest but functional stalls and other supporting facilities such as warehouses and trucks would be enough," he said, adding that it was better to develop a profitable market than an expensive one.

"Management is more important than the buildings. It's useless to have a modern market if we don't know how to run it."

During the meeting yesterday, the councilors also asked the mayoralty about the existence of illegal wholesale markets, such as those in Jembatan Lima.

"There are ordinary markets operating as wholesale markets there. This kind of action must be stopped," councilor Nasrul Arman of Commission B said.

In response, Sutardjianto said his office had tried to bring order to the illegal markets, including those in Pesing and Cengkareng, by relocating traders to legal markets supervised by the city.

The mayoralty also launched a crackdown against sidewalks vendors, the mayor said. They would also be relocated inside the markets in a bid to prevent traffic congestion, he said.

"We are transferring the traders to 1,400 empty kiosks available throughout West Jakarta. But I tell you, it is really a difficult job to do because most of them are not Jakartans." he said.

"So it's difficult to legally enlist them in a market because they have to deal with residential status first before being registered as vendors here." (edt/ind)