Deployment of Unused PKL Stalls, Mataram DLH Plans Udayana to Become an Urban Forest Again

The activity of cleaning up street vendors on Jalan Udayana Mataram City, NTB, to be arranged into green open spaces Friday (24/2-2023) (ANTARA/Nirkomala)

NTB - The Mataram City Environmental Service (DLH) will restore Udayana's function as an urban forest or "green belt" area so that it no longer seems rundown with the stalls of street vendors (PKL) that are not being used.

"So today, the stalls of street vendors that are not being used are dismantled and levelled. After that, we will begin to organize and restore the function as an urban forest", said the Head of DLH Mataram City HM Kemal Islam in Mataram, NTB, Friday, February 24, reported by Antara.

The statement was made on the sidelines of monitoring the disclosure of the last Udayana street vendor stalls. A total of 38 units of shanties were demolished along eastern Udayana Street.

Initially, the demolition process began on January 11 2023, and 37 units of stalls were demolished. However, after monitoring in the last few weeks, it turned out that there was still one more stall that was considered not being utilized, bringing the total number of PKL stalls demolished to 38 units.

Kemal previously said that a budget of around IDR 300 million had been prepared to carry out the arrangement of the park, with the length of the city park to be laid out around 250-300 meters.

"We will do the arrangement in stages, according to regional capabilities", he said.

The arrangement of the Udayana Park, which starts from the north side of SMPN 6 Mataram, he said, will follow the example of the arrangement of the northern part of the park which has been planted with tree species that are safer from the potential for trees to fall.

"For the northern part of the park, we have planted colourful Tabebuya flowers, some of which are yellow, white, red, and pink. So that when they flower, they will be like cherry blossoms", he said.

Therefore, the large shade trees in the current location of Udayana Park will be cut down and replaced with flowering plants that have a low risk of falling trees.

"It's time for rejuvenation of the existing shade trees because the current type of trembles tree is a plant that breaks easily", he said.

Apart from that, the park will also be equipped with a jogging track, just like the northern part of the park. This arrangement, added Kemal, is one of the efforts to prevent traders from returning to making stalls that seem rundown.

Currently, Udayana will be cut down and replaced with flowering plants that have a low risk of falling trees.

"Even if there is merchandise, we will arrange it as much as possible so that their existence is not chaotic and dirty. But there are not many of them", he said.