16 developers to build simple houses in Maja

JAKARTA (JP): Sixteen developers will build hundreds of thousands of modest houses on about 4,200 hectares in Maja, a poor district in West Java, a developer said over the weekend.

Eppi Pribudhi Soerawidjaja, a director of PT Bukitnusa Indah Perkasa, one of the 16 developers, said the houses would be initially marketed to Maja residents and those from neighboring areas, including industrial workers in Balaraja, Tangerang, and government officials in Rangkas Bitung.

"Thus far, we don't have plans to build middle-class houses in the area," he said.

Maja district in Lebak regency has 21 villages. Eighteen of them are extremely poor. It takes one and a half hours to go by train from Tanah Abang, Jakarta, to Maja's station in Tenjo.

He said the 16 developers, including the state-owned Perumnas housing firm, had formed a team to coordinate the housing projects.

"They have appointed a consultant to design the infrastructure linking all the housing projects in the area," he said.

PT Equator Group, PT Bukitnusa Indah Perkasa and PT Bambu Kuning are leading the partnership.

"This partnership may be the first of its kind in the country. What usually happens is that developers make their projects without coordination even though their projects are nearby. As a result, infrastructure in one housing complex seldom matches with that in others," he said.

The site's name would be changed to Friendship Town of Maja, he said.

Eppi said his firm had spent Rp 125 billion (US$52.9) building 11,200 modest houses at the 200-hectare Permata Kalimaya housing complex.

He did not know how much the other developers would invest.

The planned houses will contain between 21 and 36 square meters of floor space each, on sites between 60 and 90 square meters. The houses are expected to cost between Rp 4.6 million (US$1,949) and Rp 15 million each.

Eppi said PT Bambu Kuning, PT Armedian and some of the other developers had started developing their projects and should finish them in less than five years.

The sites are accessible by car from Tigaraksa, the future capital of Tangerang regency. He said the government planned to build roads connecting Tigaraksa, Tenjo and Maja. (jsk)