Games village plan faces difficulties

JAKARTA (JP): The Jakarta administration said yesterday that it refused to give a building permit to construct an athletes village for the 19th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games here next year because it never saw the proposal.

Jakarta deputy governor for economic and development Tubagus M. Rais said yesterday that the SEA Games organizing committee had yet to submit the project proposal containing the village's blueprint.

"We have to learn whether the village's master plan meets various regulations before we issue the permit," Rais said. "We never mean to impose complicated procedures on the committee. We will issue the permit as long as it complies with all the requirements ."

Rais was responding to the committee's housing official, Bambang Sugama, who complained that the absence of a building permit had delayed the construction project of the village on a four-hectare lot in Senayan formerly used as a shooting range.

Bambang said that the project, which is expected to take 10 months to complete, would cost the Games' underwriting consortium between US$60 million and $70 million.

Rais said that the ratio of construction to open space on a given plot varies in different areas. According to the city planning office, the site is allocated for public facilities.

Meanwhile, State Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports Hayono Isman said that if the city administration could not issue the permit for the project immediately, he would call apartment developers to lease their buildings to accommodate the athletes.

Hayono listed Aburizal Bakrie, whose company is completing the construction of the Taman Rasuna apartments in Kuningan, South Jakarta, among potential construction tycoons the Games committee might ask for rooms.

The minister suggested the last alternative if the developers refused to help the committee by accommodating all participating athletes and officials in hotels around the Senayan sports complex in Central Jakarta.

"But we must remember that the hotels will also accommodate supporters from participating countries," he said.

The city's hotels, from motels to five star hotels, have a capacity of 15,000 people.

Some 7,000 athletes and officials from Southeast Asia's 10 countries are expected to take part in the Games, scheduled to run for 10 days in October next year. (yan/yns)