Bappenas denies getting relocation proposal

JAKARTA (JP): National Development Planning Board (Bappenas) officials denied yesterday a recent media report that it had received a proposal to move Jakarta's central administration outside Jakarta.

"The only project proposal we received is for a housing complex and a sports and recreation center in Jonggol," Herman Haeruman, the board's regional division deputy said.

Herman said Bappenas has previously issued permits to a number of developers to build housing developments in a 30,000-hectare Jonggol plot, about 50 kilometers southeast of Jakarta, turning it into a new satellite city.

The project's master plan does not give the slightest hint of relocating the central administration, he said.

The Bisnis Indonesia daily reported that a consortium of developers comprising the Kaestindo Group and President Soeharto's son Bambang Trihatmodjo, had submitted a relocation proposal to Bappenas.

Last September Minister of Forestry Djamaludin Suryohadikusumo issued a decree allowing the Bukit Jonggol forest area to be converted into a housing estate and PT Bukit Jonggol Asri was appointed to develop the project.

Bukit Jonggol was originally managed by the state-owned forestry company, Perum Perhutani.

Djamaludin said the company had agreed to trade the Bukit Jonggol forest with other forested areas in the West Java regencies of Cianjur, Tasikmalaya and Garut.

Herman said Bappenas would study such a proposal if the consortium submitted it. He reiterated, however, that Jakarta remains the capital as is stipulated in the presidential decree.

He said a capital city must have an airport, which Jonggol does not have. Besides, Jonggol functions as a water catchment for Bekasi. Developing a project in the protected forest areas of Jonggol may flood Bekasi, a suburb East of Jakarta, he said.

Another Bappenas official, Budhy Tjahjati Soegiyoko, said the project should not be the city's primary goal as it would be very expensive and was not in line with the government's austere budget policy.

An official of the Environmental Impact Management Agency, Bapedal, said any development which involved changes to spatial plans needed the House of Representatives' approval.

Teguh Soedarsono, the Agency's information officer, said environmental analysis also had to be done before a developer started its project.

Under government regulations, no protected forest areas are allowed to be developed. (04/anr)