'€œWhere is the Jakarta Smart City lounge? I heard it has been opened to the public but I don'€™t know where it is,'€ Bambang Sugiharto asked a security officer at City Hall in Central Jakarta on a recent Saturday.

Pointing to an elevator, the officer politely answered that the lounge was on the third floor of City Hall'€™s Block B building. Bambang, accompanied by family members, immediately made his way to the city'€™s new integrated command center.

At the front desk of the lounge, two officers greeted Bambang and his family, who were apparently the first guests of the day.

Hoping to satisfy his curiosity, Bambang approached one of the officers and began asking various questions related to Qlue, a mobile application allowing residents to lodge complaints about city issues.

The Jakarta administration kicked off the operation of Jakarta Smart City Lounge on Jan. 4. Since then, on weekends, the public has been welcome to visit the lounge, from which the administration monitors the city.

Jakarta Smart City'€™s working unit technical chief Setiaji told The Jakarta Post that the lounge was a facility to support the implementation of the Jakarta Smart City integrated online platform, which was launched last year.

According to Setiaji, the administration set up the command center in accordance with the wishes of Jakarta Governor Basuki '€œAhok'€ Tjahaja Purnama, who wanted to have one place to accommodate the needs of both the administration and the public.

He added that the administration hoped the lounge could provide quicker and better responses to complaints and suggestions from Jakarta residents.

He further said that the lounge was proof of the administration'€™s commitment to making Jakarta a smart city, enabling residents to take part in monitoring either by visiting the lounge or using a city monitoring application, such as Qlue.

Setiaji added that the lounge, which covers a 500-square-meter area, comprised not only a monitoring room, but also a meeting room for officials from the city administration. Moreover, according to Setiaji, the lounge provided a coworking space for young businesspeople and communities.

'€œThese communities and people can use the space for free. Nonetheless, we require them to register first to anticipate fully occupied spaces,'€ Setiaji said on Sunday.

In the lounge, Setiaji added, dozens of officers worked on compiling complaints or reports submitted from residents through 11 platforms, including social media, email or Qlue.

According to Setiaji, the administration had equipped the lounge with instruments that were integrated with monitoring devices, like closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras and global positioning systems (GPS), across the capital.

Setiaji, however, admitted that the lounge had yet to be fully operational as officials had yet to provide it with the administration'€™s database.

The administration is currently using the lounge to respond to residents'€™ complaints and reports sent via SMS, email and social media only.

Setiaji said the lounge would be fully operational after its grand launch, slated to be held on Jakarta'€™s anniversary, Jun. 22.

Meanwhile, Nilam Mayasari Tarigan, who works in responding to complaints and reports from SMS and email channels, said that since Jan. 4, she and five colleagues had each received hundreds of complaints and reports daily.

She added that she usually tried to address at least 20 complaints by responding directly to residents as well as forwarding the complaints to related agencies. (agn)

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