Road Access Still Made, New Rorotan COVID-19 TPU Can Be Used In February

Illustration (Photo: Unsplash)

JAKARTA - Head of the Jakarta City Parks and Forestry Office, Ivan Murcahyo, said that the Rorotan public cemetery (TPU), North Jakarta, will be used as a special burial for COVID-19 in February 2021.

The preparation for the burial ground at Rorotan Cemetery began on 17 September 2020. However, until now it is still in the process of preparing the opening of the access road.

"The Rorotan TPU is actually ready, but now we just need to access it to the cemetery. If we can catch it and the weather is clear, there's not much rain, we can rush in the first week or the second week of February," Ivan said when contacted, Tuesday, January 26.

The land area prepared at Rorotan TPU is around 2 hectares or 20 thousand square meters. However, currently the land to be used only reaches 8,000 square meters.

"We will optimize the 8,000 hectares of land and maybe we estimate that we can use around 1,500 plots," said Ivan.

If the two-hectare land clearing is complete, DKI will divide the land for Muslim and non-Muslim burials each 1 hectare.

Until now, there are 8 cemeteries which have become the burial ground for the COVID-19 DKI. Three TPU, namely TPU Pondok Ranggon, TPU Tegal Alur, and TPU Srengseng Sawah are no longer able to accommodate the bodies of the new COVID-19 because they are full.

Then, TPU Semper, TPU Joglo, TPU Dukuh, and TPU Rorotan are still in the process of preparation. Thus, there is one TPU that can still be used, namely the Bambu Wulung or Bambu Apus TPU. It's just that TPU Bambu Wulung is a special funeral for Muslim corpses.

"Now we are trying to catch up with the availability for Muslims, because there is relatively more need for it," he said.