Bumi Serpong Damai revises plans to keep dream on track

Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

After seven years of stagnancy due to the lingering of effects of the 1990s economic crisis, the Bumi Serpong Damai (BSD) housing complex in Tangerang, Banten is now revising its plan to keep its dream of becoming a self-sustaining town on track.

"We've had to revise our original plans because of the prolonged economic crisis, which stagnated the project for nearly seven years," BSD Public Service General Manager Dhony Rahajoe told The Jakarta Post in a recent interview.

BSD, for example, had originally planned to build several high-rise office buildings by now, but due to a lack of response from the public, the project has been shelved indefinitely. Instead, they have now established a number of commercial centers - ruko or shop-houses and shopping centers -- to spur economic growth in the area.

The city management has also revised the target of its total development completion from 2014 to 2020.

Dhony, however, stressed that BSD would still be developed into a self-sustaining town with a focus on retail markets and services.

"Our ambition is to create jobs for at least 70 percent of our residents. It will be reached when the city construction is totally completes," said Dhony.

"The rampant development of retail centers is the first layer of our efforts to make BSD a self-contained city. We're still keeping our ambition to develop office buildings," he said.

BSD, located some 30 kilometers southwest of downtown Jakarta, has been designed to meet all the needs of its residents, including housing and jobs, so there would be no need to travel to other areas to earn a living.

Its southern area is connected by a toll road from BSD to the Ulujami district in South Jakarta. The city also can be reached via the Jakarta-Tangerang toll road.

Executive and economy class commuter trains are also available from the Serpong station to several stations in Jakarta -- Kebayoran Lama, Palmerah, Tanah Abang, Sudirman, Manggarai and Kota.

The management also provides shuttle buses that go from BSD to Ratu Plaza in South Jakarta, Pasar Baru in Central Jakarta and Mangga Dua in North Jakarta.

According to Dhony, only 30 percent of BSD residents work locally, while the other 70 percent earn their living in other areas, including Jakarta.

BSD Public Relations Manager Idham Muchlis said most of the owners of the nearly 2,000 retail stores were BSD residents.

He said that shops in town were mostly focused on food, household equipment, furniture and spare parts for vehicles.

Others were used for offices of various small businesses like law firms, travel agencies or language courses.

Most of the businesses were currently located in two shopping centers -- Plaza BSD and ITC BSD -- car showrooms and Taman Techno, BSD's industrial area.

Located in the southern part of BSD, Taman Techno is currently occupied by 15 tenants of local and foreign companies. According to Dhony, only pollution-free companies were allowed to operate in Taman Techno.

Dhony said that in order to reach its goal of providing jobs for at least 70 percent of residents, BSD management planned to develop a Central Business District (CBD) to provide offices or branches for national and international companies.

Currently, there are only two office buildings in BSD -- the 11-story Graha Telekomunikasi and seven-story German Centre.

"Next year, we will develop another office building near the German Centre, which will mark the second step of BSD's development. We hope that there will be also a star-rated hotel here next year," Dhony added.

Launched on Jan. 16, 1989, BSD covers 6,000 hectares of land, some 25 percent of which has been developed into residential area and business areas.

As of March 2004, at least 14,338 houses of various sizes had been built in the city.

BSD plans to develop some 140,000 houses that can accommodate some 600,000. The current prices of new houses range from Rp 160 million to Rp 2 billion each.

Dhony said BSD currently had managed to fulfill nearly all of the needs of its residents. Schools -- both private and state-run -- hospitals, medical centers, markets, shopping centers, sports venues and recreation centers have all been built in the city.

"Residents can fulfill nearly all of their needs here. They can shop here. They can send their children to nearby schools. They can exercise at various sports facilities. And they can be entertained at various recreation centers here," he said.

"And in the future, the majority of BSD residents will also have jobs here when the development of the city is complete. They will not need to travel through Jakarta's crowded streets every day," Dhony envisioned.

;JP;BBN; ANPAj..r.. BSD-satellite-city BSD struggles to become self-contained city JP/8/BSD

Public facilities

No. Facilities Number ---------------------------------------------------- 1. Mosques 13 2. Churches 2 3. Education

- Nursery schools and kindergartens 16

- Elementary schools 14

- Junior high schools 8

- Senior high schools 8

- Universities 5 4. Health clinics 4 5. Hospitals 1 6. Movie theaters 4 7. Sports facilities

- Golf courses 1

- Driving ranges 1

- Tennis courts 6

- Swimming pools 6 8. Banks 17