T

he Jakarta administration is set to flatten the semipermanent structures that make up the Kalijodo area, home to the city'€™s largest red-light district, to make way for green spaces.

The plan to clear the area has been revived in the wake of an accident on Monday that led to the deaths of four people. In the incident, Riki Agung Prasetyo hit a motorcycle in front of him; he was allegedly drunk alcohol in Kalijodo.

Buildings in Kalijodo, which straddle North and West Jakarta, have been knocked down on several occasions, including once in 2003, but the area'€™s pimps and sex workers have continued their trade regardless.

Governor Basuki '€œAhok'€ Tjahaja Purnama said that the plan to clear Kalijiodo had been on the city'€™s agenda for a while, noting that buildings in the area were built on designated green space regulated and overseen by the administration.

In a 2007 bylaw on public order, individuals and organizations are prohibited from occupying green spaces.

'€œWe will send letters to local people telling them to clear the area,'€ Ahok told reporters at City Hall Wednesday.

The city administration, he said, planned to develop the area into its initial purpose as an open green space, adding that the city would not provide for the displaced pimps and sex workers.

Separately on Wednesday, Jakarta Police chief Insp. Gen. Tito Karnavian said the police were ready to help the administration to evict the residents of the red-light district.

'€œThe administration will decide whether to go ahead with the plan. In principle, we are ready to help,'€ Tito said.

Kalijodo, also a gambling hot spot, is home to thousands of sex workers, brothel owners and petty criminals.

The district has been known as a red-light district since the 1930s, when the city, then called Batavia, was under Dutch rule. At that time, the red-light district was home mostly to Chinese prostitutes, but now the majority are ethnic Indonesians.

Besides prostitution and gambling, the area has in the past seen sectarian conflict.

In 2013, a brawl pitting Makassarese against Mandarese, with stones thrown and arrows fired, ended with 13 people hospitalized with severe injuries.

Effort to rid the area of prostitution began in 1998 when then governor Sutiyoso knocked down the semipermanent structures used as brothels. Brothel owners and sex workers left the area, but returned not long afterwards and recommenced their trade.

The administration, still under Sutiyoso, cleared the area once more in 2003. Police officers deployed to the area faced resistance from some residents, but the eviction process went ahead as planned.

The plan to rid Kalijodo of prostitution has reemerged under the Ahok administration; clearing was initially planned for last year, but was delayed, according to Ahok, because the city was prioritizing the eviction of people living on the banks of the Ciliwung River to allow the central government to widen the river and build concrete embankments.