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Organizers look to ‘ojeks’ and extra beds
Athletes’ village: A man takes a picture of a five-storey apartment building set aside to house the athletes
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Athletes’ village: A man takes a picture of a five-storey apartment building set aside to house the athletes. JP/Mustaqim Adamrah
Motorcycle taxis, known as ojek, and extra rooms will be set aside during the National Games as the organizers work to deal with transportation and accommodation issues during the two-week sporting showcase.
Two five-storey buildings have been built as the athletes’ village. Located on Jl. Jendral Sudirman, the apartment buildings contain 356 apartments.
Each apartment comprises two 3-square-meter bedrooms, a bathroom, dining room and pantry and an area that serves as a living room.
“We’ve installed squat toilets because the apartments will be rented to labors after the Games,” Riau Youth and Sports Agency spokesman Zulkifli Rachman said.
“We’ll have electricity connected later this month [July].”
The organizers will also house athletes in the students’ dormitories belonging to four universities.
“We have agreed that the accommodation arrangements are made based on the athletes’ sports, not their provinces of origin,” National Games committee executive Syamsurizal said in a press conference.
“Athletes and officials will be staying at hotels, or athletes’ villages, that are near to their respective sporting venues.”
However, he could not detail the total number of hotel rooms and rooms in athletes’ villages that would be available for athletes and officials.
A number of athletes complained during the last National Games in East Kalimantan in 2008 because their accommodation was too far from their sporting venues, with the risk of their being late for their competitions.
Syamsurizal said the committee was also listing the availability of rooms in people’s homes for officials, referees, guests and spectators to rent.
There will be 50 different sports in the Games, but National Games committee spokesman Nurul Huda could not confirm the numbers of competing athletes, participating provinces or indeed contested medals as of Thursday.
The last Games in East Kalimantan featured 11,000 athletes and officials competing in 43 sports.
The presence of the sporting delegations for two weeks is expected to cause inevitable traffic jams and transportation glitches.
Huda said a number of motorcycle taxis would be deployed to meet some of the demand, with university students as drivers.
In addition, Syamsurizal said the committee had also coordinated with the Riau Police and public transportation stakeholders to make sure traffic would run smoothly.
For athletes and officials, the committee says it will provide a total of 799 vehicles, including 262 40-seater buses, 192 24-seater buses, 33 multipurpose vehicles and 12 trucks, as well as buses that will be used by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s entourage.
The buses will shuttle athletes and officials from hotels or athletes’ villages to sporting venues along three corridors linked to Rumbai, Riau University and Riau Islamic University.
