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Illegal parking, street vendors remain rampant in Tanah Abang amid busy Ramadan shopping
The number of visitors has increased in recent weeks during Ramadan as people shop in Tanah Abang, causing an overabundance of vehicles around the crowded market as parking spaces inside the building are full.
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Pedestrians share limited space with street vendors occupying the sidewalks under the Tanah Abang Skybridge in Central Jakarta on May 15. (Antara/Indrianto Eko Suwarso)
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espite numerous efforts by the Jakarta administration to manage Tanah Abang in Central Jakarta, the area remains chaotic with rampant illegal parking and street vendors crowding the street, in addition to a high number of passing vehicles and public minivans as shoppers proliferate during Ramadan.
Hundreds of motorbikes and cars crowd several sidewalks and alleyways around the famous textile market. Street vendors on the sidewalks of Jl. Jati Baru Raya have also left little space for pedestrians.
The number of visitors has increased in recent weeks during Ramadan as people shop in Tanah Abang, causing an overabundance of vehicles around the crowded market as parking spaces inside the building are full.
Unofficial parking attendants have taken advantage of the situation by charging people a flat rate of Rp 10,000 (US 0.69 cents) to park illegally on the street.
The cost has upset some people, like Suyatno, who went to the market to shop for Idul Fitri clothes with his wife. He parked his motorcycle on the street for about an hour after he could not find a parking space inside Tanah Abang Market’s Blok A.
He initially thought he would be paying Rp 2,000 as that was the common price for on-street parking in Jakarta.
"It’s just insane. They will get rich in no time if they are allowed to keep doing it. I wonder who’s backing them,” Suyatno told The Jakarta Post on Monday.
Illegal parking around Tanah Abang Market has not been eliminated even though the city has provided parking facilities inside the market's Blok A, Blok B, Blok F and Blok G, where official ticketing rates are imposed. At present, the city charges Rp 4,000 per hour to park a car and Rp 2,000 per hour to park a motorcycle.
The city administration had built the Tanah Abang Skybridge to accommodate street vendors and ease traffic congestion as it also functions as a footbridge connecting the Tanah Abang railway station to the market. Still, although the footbridge was officially opened in December last year, street vendors continue to occupy the sidewalks along Jl. Jatibaru Raya.
In Tanah Abang, congestion is inevitable, but the absence of street vendors and illegal parking means the vehicles can at least crawl forward. At least 350 Public Order Agency officers (Satpol PP) from all parts of Jakarta have been deployed to control the area since last week when the numbers of visitors started to increase, the head of Jakarta Satpol PP, Arifin, said.
He said he ordered the deployment following concerns expressed by some of his officers in Tanah Abang, who found difficulties dealing with the violators.
Arifin said officers were no longer allowed to address the problem with "excessive actions" such as deflating motorcycle tires or towing cars away with help of the city's transportation agency as deterrents. He said officers must address the matter using dialogue instead.
“We can’t give them sanctions because we received no orders from the Central Jakarta administration to do that,” he told the Post.
The Jakarta administration has planned to build an integrated office consisting of several of the city’s agencies and city-owned enterprises, as part of the efforts to conduct long-term management of Tanah Abang area, said the acting head of the Transportation Agency, Sigit Wijatmoko.
The integration was aimed at gathering all relevant offices together to provide all the facilities needed to keep Tanah Abang in order so economics and mobility could go hand in hand.
“Our concept is how to facilitate the two activities by optimizing the integrated area,” he said as reported by tempo.co on Saturday.
The building is to be used by the Jakarta Transportation Agency, the Public Order Agency (Satpol PP), city-owned developer PD Sarana Jaya and city-owned market operator PD Pasar Jaya.
The city also plans to invite commuter line operator PT Kereta Commuter Indonesia (KCI) to join the project for a new office building in Jatibaru, Tanah Abang. (das)
