The Jakarta administration plans to expedite the rebuilding and redevelopment of Senen Market in Central Jakarta, following a fire that gutted thousands of stalls in the market's Blok 3, in the early hours of Friday morning.

City-owned market operator PD Pasar Jaya president director Djangga Lubis said that the plan to redevelop the 40-year-old market building would commence after July.

'[PD Pasar Jaya] and the vendors have agreed. We will start the reconstruction in a matter of months, after the Idul Fitri holidays [in July]. We will expedite the plan by building a temporary market [to accommodate the vendors],' he told reporters at City Hall on Friday.

Governor Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo said that he had instructed the market operator to start building the temporary market on Sunday. 'The temporary market will be built in front of and behind the current market building and it should be completed soon to ensure that economic activities can resume as soon as possible,' he said after an inspection of the site on Friday morning.

At least 40 fire trucks and 350 firefighters were deployed to extinguish the blaze ' which raged for several hours.

Later in the day, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono paid a visit to the site, but only to monitor the incident from afar.

Yudhoyono and his entourage, which included Cabinet Secretary Dipo Alam and presidential spokesman Julian Aldrin Pasha, observed the site from the yard of Atrium Senen shopping mall, about 300 meters from the location of the fire.

The President, who gave instructions to relevant officials during the visit, left after about 10 minutes.

Senen Market's Blok 3 accommodated more than 3,000 stall holders, most of whom sold second-hand clothes and textiles, with more than 2,000 stalls destroyed. No casualties were reported, but losses from the incident are expected to amount to tens of billions of rupiah.

Both Djangga and Jokowi played down speculation that the fire was set deliberately. 'The building is very old ' it was built in 1974. I doubt that the fire was engineered. The police are investigating the incident,' Djangga said.

Jakarta Police chief Insp. Gen. Dwi Priyatno said six people had been questioned in relation to the fire. 'The lab results will reveal the cause, whether it originated from a short circuit or something else,' he said.

The market was named after the day it used to operate. According to colonial archives, Senen Market was first built by Dutch landlord Justinus Vinck in the 1730s. (ask/dyl)

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