Warehouse relocation slower than expected

Warehouse relocation slower than expected

JAKARTA (JP): Head of City Economic Bureau Albert Napitulu
expressed concern over the failure of businesses to relocate
their warehouses from the Kota area in West Jakarta.

"The number of warehouses which have been relocated since 1985
is only 46 out of about 120 located in the area," Albert said.

Albert told reporters yesterday that the program was first
introduced in 1985 and stipulates that all warehouses in Glodok,
Sawah Besar and Taman Sari districts should be relocated to other
areas.

He explained that the apparent failure of the program is
mainly caused by irresponsible owners who are reluctant to
relocate their warehouses because they have not understood the
importance of the program.

Albert said the program is aimed at anticipating the
development of trade, especially international trade, and Glodok,
Sawah Besar and Taman Sari are not designated warehouse zones.

"The traffic in the area is always congested which can hamper
goods being distributed and I don't understand why they are
reluctant to move," he said.

Assistant for City Secretary Prawoto Danoemihadjo said that
traffic jams in the vicinity show that the intensity of trade,
both domestic and international, is growing rapidly in the area.

"However the traffic jams can affect and impair businesses
there and it should be solved. The only way to solve it is by
relocating the warehouses to more strategic locations," he told
warehouse owners during a meeting held by the bureau yesterday.

Albert said the city administration is planning to relocate
the warehouses to several new locations such as Pluit in West
Jakarta, Ciracas in East Jakarta, and Sunter in North Jakarta.

However, he said, the city administration intends to
concentrate on developing a warehouse center in Pluit because of
its strategic location which is close to Sukarno-Hatta airport
and Tanjung Priok port.

"The distribution of goods would be smoother because there is
a toll road leading to the airport and an elevated road leading
to the port," he said, adding that the city is planning to invest
Rp 60 billion in the construction of the warehouse center in
Pluit.

He said by the year 1997, when the construction of the
warehouse center in Pluit is finished, there will be no more
warehouses in the Glodok area.

Prawoto explained that the city administration has also
declared that once the warehouses relocate, the sites will be
part of a general renovation program in the Glodok area.

"The city administration will renovate those warehouses
instead of demolishing them and they will be used as facilities
for tourism, such as hotels, restaurants and souvenir shops," he
said.(yns)