SOME 52 CULTURAL SITES IN PADANG DAMAGED : OFFICIAL

Padang, Oct 15 (ANTARA) - Some 52 cultural sites in West Sumatra's provincial capital of Padang are damaged due to the magnitude-7.6 earthquake which hit the area last September 30.

"All the 52 sites are of precious cultural value since they were built during the Dutch and Japanese colonial eras," Edi Hasmi, head of Padang's culture and tourism office, said here on Thursday.

He said in monetary terms, the losses ran into billions of rupiah.

Among the damaged 52 cultural sites were the Padang Mayor's office, Chinese houses of worship, Bank Japanise, Ganting Mosque, Gedung Juang 45 and cathedral. Some old buildings in the Pasa Gadang area, South Padang subdistrict, are also in broken condition.

"We hope the government through the Culture and Tourism Office can allocate some budget to restore all broken cultural sites by year 2010," Edi said.

Earlier, Padang city's mayor, Fauzi Bahar, had said the city had sustained a total of Rp 3 trillion in material losses due to the temblor.

"The losses are from damaged houses, hotels, buildings, religious sites and government administration offices," said Fauzi.

The mayor said buildings in the Padang City Hall complex were 80 percent damaged. To rebuild the place, he said, Padang city`s administration would cooperate with construction experts from Andalas University, Padang State University and the public Works Office.

The program to rebuild local residents` houses and private buildings would also be implemented in coordination with the public works office.

"Padang city`s administration is also to cooperate with building experts from Malaysia in a program to inform the public on how to make buildings quake-proof. The Malaysian experts have already briefed us through audio-visual aids," Fauzi added.

The quake which was centered 78 km northwest of Padang, the capital of West Sumatra province, at a depth of 71 km in the seabed. It caused major damage to 101,653 while moderate damage to 48,966 and minor damage to 49,026 houses.

Up till now, the West Sumatra earthquake has taken 807 lives , and leaving hundreds of people injured, and crushing 283,067 houses.