Jonggol township plan needs presidential decree: Official

Jonggol township plan needs presidential decree: Official

BOGOR, West Java (JP): The Jonggol township plan needs a presidential decree in order to realize facilities and infrastructure, a regency spokesman has said.

As long as the decree has not been issued, "it is too early to talk about facilities like electricity and piped water," Denny M. Moechri said Saturday.

Last month President Soeharto approved a plan for his son, Bambang Trihatmodjo, to develop a self-sufficient city in Jonggol, about 50 kilometers southeast of here.

Bambang heads the group of developers under PT Bukit Jonggol Asri which plans to build the 30,000-hectare project.

The plan was controversial as initial reports suggested Jonggol would become the new capital, but Bambang denied these, saying the township would only house several government offices.

Denny said the presidential decree would include spatial plans for the area.

Because Jonggol and the neighboring Cariu area was formerly designated for farming, the spatial plan will have to change if it is to be a self-contained town, Denny said.

After finalizing spatial plans for Jonggol, Denny said the West Java province should then draw up a detailed plan. This would allocate farming, residential and other areas, he said.

An even more specific plan would then be needed as guidelines for the location of drains and roads, he said.

In response to when these plans could be completed he only said they could either be issued at separate times or simultaneously.

The job would be expensive, Denny said. Spatial plans for Cibinong, a 6,000-hectare area, cost hundreds of millions of rupiah. A plan for a 30,000-hectare site could cost billions, he said.

Despite Denny's statements, the state telecommunications company, PT Telkom, has promised to initially make 10,000 telephone lines available for the new city.

Head of PT Telkom's Cibinong branch, M Ichwan, told reporters in Jonggol on Dec. 26 of last year that although they had not been contacted by the developer, the company had nonetheless begun constructing an automatic telephone exchange with a capacity of 35,000 telephone lines to serve the city and its surrounding areas. (anr/sur)