This Year Monas Will Be Greener, Equipped With Amphitheater

JAKARTA - Acting Governor of DKI Jakarta Heru Budi Hartono together with Minister of Public Works and Public Housing (PUPR) Basuki Hadimuljono announced that the government will reorganize the National Monument (Monas) area this year.

The arrangement is in the form of increasing the element of Monas reforestation, as well as making amphitheaters as an audience arena for video mapping shows. This was revealed by Heru after a leadership meeting that discussed the finalization of the Monas arrangement design.

"Today we discuss for the umpteenth time, equalizing the perception of the Monas concept in the future. The point is, this concept is to add green, starting from the initial 50 percent to 64 percent," said Heru at DKI Jakarta City Hall, Tuesday, April 11.

The design of the Monas arrangement made greener has been made. Basuki and the Ministry of State Secretariat had provided a little input in the finalization of the design.

The areas in the Monas area that will be greened are more in the four Monas crossings, namely at the West Merdeka Cross, Southeast Monas Cross, Northeast Monas Cross, and Northwest Monas Cross.

Then, reforestation will also be carried out in the IRTI Parking area and Lenggang Jakarta which is on the south side of the Monas area. Later, the parking location for vehicles and Lenggang Jakarta kiosks will be moved to the east side near Gambir Station.

Basuki said that the Monas area arrangement master plan would be brought to the Minister of State Secretary (Mensesneg) Pratikno as Chairman of the Steering Committee for the Development of the Medan Merdeka Area for approval before carrying out the construction.

"The design is ready, the master plan is ready. We will take this Master plan to the regional planning board chaired by the Minister of State Secretary and we will immediately carry it out in 2023," said Basuki.

For information, the Monas design was last changed by former DKI Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan to carry out the revitalization of Monas. The Monas revitalization project, which was started in early 2020, had caused a polemic.

This is because the DKI Provincial Government has cut down about 190 trees for the construction of the southern side of the plaza in the Monas area. This had made the DKI Jakarta DPRD furious.

The revitalization of Monas was stopped for some time. Until finally, the revitalization was resumed with the DKI Provincial Government's record that it must replant trees with a minimum amount of three times that of being cut down.