City Council approves bill on land reclamation

JAKARTA (JP): The City Council has approved the bill on the reclamation project and the development plan of the northern coastline of the city.

In a plenary session chaired by City Council Speaker M.H. Ritonga on Friday evening all factions in the City Council, the ruling Golkar grouping, the Indonesian Democratic Party, the United Development Party and the Armed Forces faction, unanimously accepted the bill.

The deputy governor for government affairs, Idroes, and the Jakarta representatives in the People's Consultative Assembly and the House of Representatives attended the plenary session.

It is the Ministry of Home Affairs which has the authority to pass the bill into regional regulations. The ministry usually takes between three and six months to enact such a bill.

Ritonga said that the bill, comprising 51 articles grouped in 13 chapters, is based on the Presidential decree no. 52/1995, dated July 13, 1995, which stipulates the principles of land reclamation plans.

The approval of the bill is in accordance with the city administration's plans to reclaim the northern coastline of Jakarta to obtain a total of 2,700 hectares of land.

Reclamation activities are now underway in Ancol amid criticism from experts. Experts predict that the reclamation will cause flooding in the areas near the coast. Some say an environmental impact analysis, a crucial prerequisite before any development project starts, has not been done yet.

The administration will use 1,222 hectares of the reclaimed land for residential areas, 88 hectares for a business center.

According to the plan, a combination of a bonded zone and business center area will stand on 420 hectares of the new land, while 37 hectares will be for green areas, 420 hectares for mangrove forests. The expansion of the Tanjung Priok port will also be constructed on the land.

The bill stipulates that the northern coastline, which will be developed into a waterfront city, will be divided into three zones involving a western zone mainly for housing, central zone for an international standard trade and service center, tourism as well as housing complex, and an eastern zone for a commodity distribution center, port and industry.

Djenny Suharso of the Indonesian Democratic Party, asked the governor in Friday's plenary session to anticipate the possible floods which may be caused by the reclamation project.

Governor Surjadi Soedirdja has guaranteed that the project will bring about a better environmental condition for the city, and not floods.

"If there is 100 mangrove trees at present, there must be 1,000 mangrove trees after the project is completed," he told reporters. (32)