Temporary Blue Tent Stalls Offer Places to Rest

KOMPAS/HERU SRI KUMORO

Blue tent stalls stand in the emergency rest area at Kilometer Marker 33 of the Bakauheni-Terbanggi Besar toll road in Kalianda, South Lampung, as seen on May 13, 2019. The local people have pitched tent stalls to sell food and drinks to travelers.

Local residents are stepping up to deal with the shortcomings of inadequate public facilities, pitching blue tent stalls along the Trans-Sumatra toll road where public rest areas are unavailable.

At around 8:00 p.m. on May 13, 2019, five truck drivers plying the Jakarta-Lampung route stopped over for coffee at a blue tent stall at Kilometer Marker (KM) 33 on the Bakauheni-Terbanggi Besar toll road section. Their conversation covered a variety of topics, from new toll roads, to illegal fees on Sumatra’s eastern routes and to auto part prices.

Muksin Sulur, 43, a resident of Agom village in Kalianda district, Central Lampung regency, Lampung province, owns the stall, serving customers until late in the evening. "We are open 24 hours. My children take over at noon," he said.

The tent stall has been erected on a corn plantation that borders the toll road – it has no fence. Travelers can park their vehicles on the shoulder and visit the stall.

The tent is simple: Its walls are made of plywood and repurposed banners; its roof is blue tarp.

A 3-by-3-meter wooden platform is available behind the stall for customers to rest and pray. There is also a basic, clean toilet.

Muksin, who is a farmer, said that he spent Rp 2 million on building his stall. He had already broken even with the income he had made from serving travelers at the stall.

Public rest areas are not yet available on the Trans-Sumatra toll road from Bakauheni to Palembang, even as the country enters the 2019 mudik (exodus) travel season. Temporary rest areas are available, albeit with limited capacity. An estimated 5,300 vehicles are expected to pass the Trans-Sumatra toll road each day, once the mudik travel season opens on May 29.

The blue tent stalls, built on corn plantations and paddy fields, offer beverages, a place to rest and toilets.

Continue operating

Muksin said that the toll road should have a positive economic impact for local residents. Muksin wanted to work at a public rest area, once they were built. "As long as it is not banned, I will just operate here," he said.

Yeyen Ekawati, 40, who lives Pesawaran, Lampung, opened a blue tent stall with relatives just off KM 87, not far from the Natar tollgate. She hoped that she would be able to run a similar stall at a public rest area.

Yeyen, whose husband is an itinerant construction worker and a farmer, was invited to open the stall by construction workers working nearby. Incidentally, her husband also worked on the toll road project.

At first, Yeyen only sold drinks and fast food like instant noodles. She later expanded to home-cooked dishes, because an increasing number of customers stopped by and asked if she sold rice dishes.

“Before operating here, I had a stall at my house. Now my stall at home is closed, so I can concentrate here,” she said.

New economy

Muksin and dozens of Agom villagers also opened stalls at the edge of their farms. They hope that the toll road will help grow the local economy.

Manto, 45, a truck driver serving the Jakarta-Lampung route, said he was happy that the blue tent stalls had opened, because public rest areas were far and few.

"It’s fortunate that these temporary stalls are here. At least there are places to take a rest, smoke and drink coffee. The food and beverages are also cheap," said Manto, to his colleagues’ agreement.

The head of the Bakauheni-Terbanggi Besar toll road section at PT Hutama Karya, Hanung Hanindito, said that the toll road company permitted local residents to open roadside tent stalls on the during the mudik travel season. They would be able to help travelers who needed food and drink. He said the stalls would be allowed to operate until a public rest area was built.

The public rest areas are to open its tenancy to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) that had passed the local government’s selection process.

Febry Calvin Tetelepta, the presidential expert staff for development control, monitoring, and evaluation of national priority programs for infrastructure, said that the tenancy of canteens at public rest areas would be prioritized for local residents. (VIO/AIN/IRE)