Feasibility study on waterfront city underway: Official

JAKARTA (JP): A feasibility study of the Waterfront City Project will be ready in six months, Deputy Governor in charge of Economic and Development Affairs, Tb. M. Rais said yesterday.

He said discussions were underway about a memorandum of understanding with contractors for the project which would be built on 2,700 hectares on the north Jakarta coast.

On Wednesday Governor Surjadi Soedirdja sought support from legislators on the project.

The plan is to build a waterfront city complete with housing, recreational facilities and a business center.

It will stretch 32 kilometers of the Jakarta Bay from Pluit in the west to Cilincing in the east.

He told Commission II for Administrative Affairs members the project had the necessary Presidential Decree authorizing the city to coordinate its implementation.

But he said the project still needed a decree from the Minister of Transportation.

Earlier the project was regulated by a joint decree between the city, the Ministry of Transportation and the National Land Agency.

The project needs Ministry of Transportation approval because it has jurisdiction over sea-related projects.

Surjadi told legislators the joint decree should be annulled because the city now had a presidential decree.

The project could immediately start once the Ministry of Transport issued a permit, Surjadi said.

He guaranteed the project would not increase flood problems because it was thoroughly planned. When the project was first announced critics said it might worsen Jakarta's flood problem.

Yesterday after meeting the Jakarta Waterfront Development Project, the body the city formed to supervise the plans, Surjadi hinted the city would go ahead with the project which is scheduled to start this year.

Rais said contractors for the project's first phase included PT Manggala Karya Yudha and PT Pembangunan Jaya.

PT Manggala, owned by President Soeharto's youngest daughter Siti Hutami Endang Adiningsih, has accumulated 75 hectares. It plans to invest Rp 1 trillion (US454.54 million) on 500 hectares.

Also on Wednesday Surjadi told legislators the subway project still had funding problems.

He said Germany had offered soft loans but the government did not allow soft loans to be borrowed from foreign countries.

The Indonesian Japanese European consortium, which wants to build the subway, wants the city to pay Rp 2.2 trillion of the project's estimated Rp 4.2 trillion.

But Surjadi said this was too expensive for the city. (ste)