Bekasi West Java Builds Six Places of Worship Within One Complex

TheIndonesia.id - The Bekasi Regency Government in West Java Province worked together to build six places of worship in one complex to support religious tourism activities. A mosque, a Catholic church, a Protestant church, a Buddhist monastery, a Hindu temple, and a Confucianist pagoda are planned to be built simultaneously on an area of 12,525 square meters in the Jababeka Area, North Cikarang District, Bekasi Regency.

"We work together to build together, build places of worship. Hopefully, this will be a beautiful sight for our diversity in Bekasi Regency," said acting Bekasi Regent Dani Ramdan in Cikarang, Thursday, August 18, 2022. "Hopefully it will be finished soon and can be enjoyed by all residents. Construction has started, marked by the laying of the first stone on Monday (August 15) yesterday," said Ramdan.

Head of the People's Welfare Section of the Bekasi Regency Regional Secretariat Beni Yulianto Iskandar said that the Bekasi Regency Religious Harmony Forum (FKUB) initiated the construction of the complex for the place of worship. "This will become a religious tourism area initiated by FKUB who talked with Jababeka management. They wanted a place of worship in one area and then Jababeka responded well. After being initiated in 2019, thank God it was facilitated by Korem 051 Wijayakarta and it finally materialized," he said.

The place of worship complex is built on an area of 12,525 square meters, on a social facility belonging to Jababeka. Based on the agreement previously made, Jababeka will hand over the land to the Bekasi Regency Government.

"From the results of the discussion, it was agreed that the land would be used for the FKUB Secretariat with an area of 525 square meters, the remaining 12,000 square meters would be divided into six places of worship, 2,000 square meters each," said Iskandar.

Iskandar said that after laying the groundwork for the construction of a place of worship complex, Jababeka handed over the land for the social facilities to the local government. The local government then makes a detailed engineering design (DED) for the complex places of worship.

"Bekasi Regency Government is building an FKUB secretariat, (the construction of) places of worship is left to each religious representative. However, to maintain compatibility between each other, the land area and design have been agreed upon," said Beni Yulianto Iskandar.