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)