Dozens Of Poles In Solo Grand Mosque Attacked By Termites, Gibran Rakabuming Ensures Renovation Priority

SOLO - The Solo City Government immediately renovated the Solo Grand Mosque after several points of its pillars were attacked by termites.

"I have received the study, this is also one of the priorities. For the budget with the Regional Budget, it obviously requires a large amount of money", said Surakarta Mayor Gibran Rakabuming Raka in Solo as reported by Antara, Thursday, November 4.

He said that the renovation of the Great Mosque of Solo cannot be done partially but must be comprehensive. In fact, later there will be an arrangement in the mosque area.

However, he is still reluctant to convey the amount of budget needed for the renovation of the mosque which is also a cultural heritage building.

"Later, what is clear is because this is a cultural heritage, so it will become one of the priorities", he said.

Chairman of the Takmir of the Great Mosque of Solo, Muhammad Muhtarom, said there was some damage to the inside of the mosque. He said that actually damage, such as some parts of the wood rotting due to being eaten by termites, had occurred several years ago.

"The damage was detected two years ago, two years ago we handled it independently. At that time the damage was not visible, it turned out to be wide, the assumption was that only one pole turned out to be 14-16 poles were detected as damaged, so they had to be patched", he said.

He said that if it is not handled immediately, the damage will be more severe, thus requiring a larger budget.

Therefore, he asked for help from the Solo City Government regarding the budget for the renovation of the historic mosque.

"We visited here to discuss the issue of the Great Mosque. Minor damage was handled so that unwanted things did not happen. In this case, the capacity of the Great Mosque is also limited, so we collaborate with the government", he said.