The city of Cimahi is a city in the province of West Java. The city is located just west of the city of Bandung. Cimahi used to be a part of the district of Bandung, but it became an independent administrative city at 29 January 1976. At 21 June 2001 Cimahi became an autonomous city. There are three sub-districts in Cimahi and 15 sub-sub-districts.
History of Cimahi
Cimahi became known in the year 1811, when Governor-General Herman Willem Daendels ordered the construction of the road from Anyer to Panarukan, also known as
Jalan Raya Pos or
De Groote Postweg. At the location of central Cimahi he ordered the construction of a guard post, which is now located at the
alun-alun (central square) of Cimahi. Between 1874 and 1893 the railroad between Bandung andCianjur was constructed, including a train station in Cimahi. In 1886 a military complex was constructed there which included a hospital (nowadays named
Rumah Sakit Dustira) and a military prison. In 1935 Cimahi became a district.
After the independence of Indonesia, Cimahi became a part of the district of North Bandung. In 1962 an administrative cooperation was formed with Padalarang, Batujajar and Cipatat. In 1975 Cimahi received the status of an administrative city, which was the first in the province of West Java at that time. The city of Cimahi became an industrial city and most of it’s revenues originate from that.
Nowadays the city of Cimahi has formed an agglomeration with the city of Bandung to it’s east. There are some 483.00 people living there (2006 figure), compared to an 290.000 in 1990. Growth of the population is around 2.1 per cent per year.
Military city
The city of Cimahi is often called ‘The Army City’, becase the city houses numerous military training and education complexes; amongst them are the following:
- Artillery school
- Infantery school
- Military police school
These and other military complexed cover about 60 per cent of the entire city of Cimahi. The city is therefore also nicknamed ‘Green City’, but not for it’s trees but because of the green colors of the Indonesian army.
The fact that there are so many military objects in the city does also cause problems for the city itself. Buildings that belong to the military are not taxable for the most part, so the city government doesn’t get income from the biggest part of it’s area.
