T

he municipal administration of Surakarta, Central Java, has been preparing special strategic locations to relocate street vendors that have been operating along the city’s main streets.

Surakarta Mayor FX Hadi “Rudy” Rudyatmo said his administration had been preparing a mayoral decree on the locations chosen, along with the licensing procedure for vendors.

The administration, he said, would provide the vendors with the space, carts, permanent shelters or one-roof shelters to run their businesses.

“Everything is for free. They only need to pay a retribution fee of Rp 2,000 [20 US cents] per day,” Rudy said over the weekend.

The facilities, however, are only eligible for holders of placement licenses (SIP) and Surakarta ID cards.

Among the locations prepared for the relocation purposes included permanent shelters on Jl. Menteri Supeno, along Jl. Slamet Riyadi city walk and on Jl. Mayor Sunaryo.

Some will be allowed to operate at their previous locations on the condition that they replace their carts with ones provided by the city administration.

Among them are serabi (rice flour pancake) sellers along Jl. Slamet Riyadi, whose carts will be replaced by the administration with ones made of stainless steel.

For culinary street vendors, special spots will be prepared using the same concept of the Gladak Langen Bogan or Galabo, which was established by former mayor Joko Widodo.

The Pucang Sawit culinary center, for instance, has been used to accommodate vendors previously operated on Jl. Juanda.

Some 50 vendors running small businesses with small capital have been accommodated here since February 2012. They operate daily from morning to evening.

All the facilities, including the building, the carts and electricity, are provided for free by the city administration. So far, vendors are only obliged to pay for the cleaning services and are not requested to pay the retribution fee.

One of the relocated vendors, Eka Aprilia Zuraida, 44, said she was initially afraid that the relocation would cause her to earn less money.

“It turns out that I can earn more here because the location is really good,” said Eka, a soup seller in Pucang Sawit.

Other street vendors will be accommodated at Pasar Jongke market, according to Market Management Agency head Subagyo.