joint expert team has unearthed the remains of a structure believed to date back to the Dutch colonial era at the Bekasi railway station in West Java during the laying of double-double tracks (DDT).
The team, consisting of members of the Bekasi City Cultural Heritage Expert Team, the Banten Cultural Heritage Conservation Body (BPCB), state-owned railway operator PT Kereta Api Indonesia (KAI) and the Bekasi city administration, found a brick arch and wall on Friday after four days of excavation.
“It was a fruitful excavation. There is a brick arch located three meters south of the brick structure. Both structures have a similar form,” head of the Bekasi City Cultural Heritage Expert Team Ali Anwar said in a written statement on Friday, as quoted by kompas.com.
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Ali said the brick structure was found 30 centimeters underground. The team continued the excavation to a depth of 1.6 meters.
The Banten BPCB will conduct further examinations on the structure to determine whether it dates back to the Dutch era.
Ali added that his team was considering preserving the brick structure as a heritage ornament at Bekasi railway station.
“We will discuss with related stakeholders about whether to keep the structure buried or to use it as decoration of the new Bekasi station,” he said. (aly)
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