Planned bus terminal becomes huge fish pond
Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
It is hard to believe that the swampy area with a huge fish pond right in the center is actually supposed to be the Rp 60 billion (US$7 million) Pulo Gebang intercity bus terminal in East Jakarta.
It was supposed to become operational in 2001, but construction has been slower than molasses.
The only sign of that construction work is some upturned soil on one side of the pond and the 2-meter high wall encircling the 10.9-hectare compound, around a kilometer from the East Jakarta municipality office.
"The last construction work was done five months ago," Kirin, 75, a resident whose home is just a few meters away from the compound, pointing to a new section of the wall.
"But nothing has happened since," said the old man, who was taking his ducks to the pond, which is also used by Saturday morning fishing enthusiasts.
The field situation is much worse than what had been reported to the City Council's commission D that oversees development affairs. The commission was criticizing the construction of the bus terminal with councillors so astutely deducing that it was going at a "snail's pace".
"The city administration must be more serious in the planning as well in the implementation of the environmental impact analysis study before embarking on a project and committing budgetary funds, or it is just a waste of the public's money," said the commission's head Koeswadi Soesilohardjo.
The commission released a statement on Thursday after assessing the city's 2003 budget on development affairs.
The terminal had been intended to replace the crowded Pulogadung bus terminal, also in East Jakarta, which could no longer accommodate the increasing number of buses.
Pulogadung terminal is also notorious for rampant thuggery targeting would-be bus passengers.
The commission questioned the use of Rp 60 billion of city fund and, therefore, demanded a thorough probe of the spending in the project by the Jakarta Audit Agency (Bawasda) and the Development Finance Comptroller (BPKP).
Meanwhile, Jakarta Transportation Agency head Rustam Effendy seemed reluctant to comment on the stalled project.
After being pressed further, he admitted that his office was still facing problems with land acquisition.
Kirin, who also happens to be an owner of 300-square meters of that land, confirmed that, while saying that he and his fellow land owners had refused to sell to the city at the prices offered by the administration.
"They're offering me a meager Rp 325,000 per square meter, only a half of the current sales and property tax value (NJOP) around the area which averages around Rp 750,000," he lamented, while adding that he would only sell the land for Rp 2 million per square meter.
The real market value is usually higher than the NJOP.
The East Jakarta municipality has already received Rp 13.4 billion from the city budget for land compensation alone.
It said earlier that it would not find it difficult to acquire the remaining 1.9 hectares of land for the construction project since most of the land was owned by state-owned property company Perumnas.
The planned terminal was expected to accommodate 1,400 buses per day. It will be far larger than the existing 3.3-hectare Pulogadung terminal.