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After fire, Blok A vendors want to return to Fatmawati building
After a fire forced them to move their shops for a second time since 2015, Sukini and other vendors hope to return to a new building at Fatmawati Market, a place many of them fondly remember.
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A woman searchers for any items that can be salvaged from where her kiosk once stood, after a fire burned down 414 stalls at Blok A Market in South Jakarta on Wednesday. (The Jakarta Post/Wendra Ajistyatama)
S
ukini, 60, greeted her customers on Saturday at a small stall she had moved to three days earlier, after a fire had burned down her place at the temporary shelter for vendors of Blok A Market on Jl. Sungai Sambas, South Jakarta.
The stall, covered only by a blue tarpaulin, stood in front of an elementary school behind the destroyed shelter. Sukini, who sells vegetables, fruits, fish and other products, said she did not know where she would be heading in the future.
Along with other vendors from Blok A, Sukini had been told to move to the temporary shelter while city-owned market operator PD Pasar Jaya reconstructed the market building in Fatmawati, South Jakarta, to make room for an MRT station.
Sukini expressed hope that, instead of moving back to the temporary shelter, she could move to the new market building in Fatmawati, which has been under construction ever since the original building was demolished in 2015. She said she had stayed at the shelter for too long.
"I want to go back to the old location. It felt like home to me. It was the place where I began my shop when I was young, until I got grandchildren,” she told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.
At the shelter on Jl. Sungai Sambas, Sukini had loyal customers who would buy in large quantities, but it was difficult to get new customers there, since the street was located in an affluent area.
Pasar Jaya spokesperson Amanda Gita told the Post that the development of the MRT station in Fatmawati required around 1,000 square meters of the old market area.
Pasar Jaya had planned an opening ceremony for June 2017 after reconstructing the market building, but the construction was halted because of design changes, and as a result, the market operator needed to reapply for building permits.
“There’s a permit problem related to the floor area ratio (KLB), but after the fire, the Jakarta administration would push it. If we got that, we could proceed with the development immediately,” Amanda said.
Sukini said she heard that while waiting for the construction to complete, the vendors might be accommodated in the park area across from the market building, but that was sure yet, as Pasar Jaya was still considering other options. Another area seen as a potential temporary location is near Pondok Indah Market in South Jakarta, about 5 kilometers from Jl. Sungai Sambas.
"Pondok Indah Market is too far, and the area is more elite than Jl. Sungai Sambas. We hope we won’t be relocated too far. We don't want to leave our loyal customers. I would be devastated again to leave them, just as I was when the fire struck," Sukini said.
Dede, 30, runs a small vegetable stall in the same area, also does not want to be moved to Pondok Indah for the same reason.
“We would have to start from scratch if we moved there, because we rely so much on our loyal customers here,” Dede said.
He added that, beside their current location on Jl. Sungai Sambas, other sellers opted to return to areas near Fatmawati.
Amanda said Pasar Jaya was still looking for some options to accommodate the vendors.
“As the discussion goes, we might not move them to Pondok Indah Market, because we are also taking into consideration their loyal customers,” Amanda said. (ggq)
