Developer challenges public to take case to court
Ahmad Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The developer of luxurious housing complex Pantai Indah Kapuk in North Jakarta, which is accused of causing floods, challenged the public on Monday to take the case to court.
"We are ready to face any legal action," the president of developer PT Mandara Permai, Budi Nurwono, told reporters after meeting Governor Sutiyoso at City Hall.
Budi, accompanied by the firm's owner, property tycoon Ciputra, denied that the housing project had caused floods along the toll road heading to Soekarno-Hatta International Airport. But he said that his company had agreed to finance the development of a water dike along nearby Angke river to protect the area from encroaching seawater.
The 1,160-hectare complex has long sparked controversy as it was built in 1989 on area formerly covered by mangrove forest and swamps. The construction of the project was approved by then minister of forestry Hasjrul Harahap and then governor Wiyogo Atmodarminto.
Several NGOs are planning to file a class action suit against the developer for causing floods in the nearby Penjaringan area.
They accused the developer of violating the city's land-use plan for building the complex on a protected green belt area.
According to the city's master land-use plan for 1985 and 2005, the location was still designated a green belt area.
But it was changed into a residential area in 1995. The conversion was justified with the issuance of Bylaw No. 6/1999 on the city's land-use plan. The bylaw, which remains valid until 2010, stipulates that the location, where PIK is situated, is designated for housing, instead of a green belt area.
Budi said that the housing project was built on former fish ponds that belonged to the Ministry of Forestry, not on a water catchment area and mangrove forest.
"We refuse the accusation that we caused flooding... and we reject any change to our housing complex before it is decided by a court," he said.
City Governor Sutiyoso earlier suggested that a golf course in the housing complex should be changed into a water dam to reduce flooding in the area.
Budi claimed that the annual floods in areas near the toll road were mainly caused by the sea tide, which had further encroached on inland areas because the land had sunk 70 centimeters since 1974.
But Budi could not explain how his company managed to exchange the 1,160-hectare plot of land owned by the forestry ministry with several plots in West Java and two islands north of Jakarta.
Records show that the developer exchanged the land in North Jakarta with a 1,190-hectare site in Citarum, Cianjur, a 75- hectare plot in Rumpin, Bogor and a 350-hectare piece of land in Nagrak, Sukabumi.
The developer also acquired an 18.4-hectare site on West Penjaliran island and a 19-hectare site on East Penjaliran island, part of the Thousand Island chain, located north of Jakarta and gave them to the ministry.