TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
High-rise manager rejects city's safety inspection policy
A plan by the city administration to recruit 200 inspectors to monitor safety standards in Jakarta's high-rises has been criticized as wasteful
Change Size
A plan by the city administration to recruit 200 inspectors to monitor safety standards in Jakarta's high-rises has been criticized as wasteful.
Suryo Adi Prasetyo, who manages the Wisma Kosgoro building on Jl. MH Thamrin in Central Jakarta, said dedicating so many people to the task was overkill.
He assured that building managers in the city coordinated with the Jakarta Property Management and Supervision Agency (P2B) and the Jakarta Fire Agency to ensure safety standards in their buildings were upheld.
"Those two agencies conduct inspections [of our buildings] safety standards' every year. I think that kind of inspection is enough," Suryo told The Jakarta Post.
"Besides, we monitor the conditions and the equipment in our own buildings on a daily basis. Of course we want to ensure the safety of our own buildings."
P2B head Hari Sasongko said earlier Saturday that his agency planned to recruit 200 new inspectors to monitor safety conditions at more than 800 high-rises in the city.
A high-rise has at least eight floors, according to a 1991 bylaw on buildings in Jakarta.
"If a building does not meet standards, the inspectors will issue warnings to the building management for it to upgrade its standards," Hari said
He said that if a building management continually neglected warnings about safety regulations, the inspectors could recommend the agency revoke that management's building permit.
According to Hari, the inspec-tors, who will be recruited and trained this year for deployment in 2010, will check whether building materials used in high-rises meet national standards stipulated by the National Standardization Agency (BSN).
"They can also recommend [to the agency] whether a developer is entitled to have a building permit or not," he said.
The agency said earlier it already employed 600 inspection officers, but that very few of them were qualified to check standards in high-rises because they were unaware of national safety standards for buildings. "That's why we will team up with the BSN to train those inspectors," he said.
Suryo said the agency should disperse detailed information about the plan to all building managements in the city.
"It should state clearly the reasons for the plan," Suryo said.
"What exactly is the purpose of deploying the building inspectors? Is there any specific regulation on this? What will the implementation be like? Will the inspectors visit the buildings on a daily basis? We need to know how urgent the plan is."
In September last year, the Jakarta Fire Agency raised concerns that fire-safety equipment in many mid- and high-rise buildings in the city was poorly maintained.
The agency disclosed that of 567 high-rises it surveyed, 214 did not have proper fire-safety equipment, and that 255 of 508 four-to eight-story buildings surveyed did not meet safety-equipment standards.
According to a 1992 bylaw on fire, high-rises must be equipped with fire alarms, fire exits, a sprinkler system, high-pressure fire extinguishers and hand-held extinguishers.
Car parks in such buildings must also meet strict safety regulations, according to the bylaw.
Early last year, P2B declared that the parking lots of eight multistory buildings in the city were "unsafe" in a survey conducted after two cars plunged off the sides of multi-story car parks: One at the Menara Jamsostek building in January last year and the second at the ITC Permata Hijau building in 2007.
Last week, eight people died in a blaze in Palmerah,West Jakarta, after the fire cut off the one escape route in the boardinghouse.
Safety requirements for high-rises
- High-voltage electrical installations and a backup power generator.
- Fire-safety equipment, including fi re alarm system, fire exits, fire extinguishers and hydrants.
- Must have elevators or escalators.
- Car parks must be fitted out with traffi c signs, speed bumps, ramps and iron railings where there are drop-offs.
- Clean water installation and sewerage.
