Living and working in the buffer zones

Jakarta, the home of some 10 million people, has become so crowded it can be hard to find a place to live. To meet the rising demand for housing, new towns are being developed in Jakarta's bufferzone areas. They are designed to be self contained and to be more than just a place to live. Employment opportunities are offered in the towns. What are they like? The Jakarta Post's team of reporters Benget Simbolon Tnb., Sugianto Tandra, Ridwan M. Sijabat, Stevie Emilia, Meidyatama Suryodiningrat, T. Sima Gunawan and Arief Suhardiman look into the issue in articles on this page, page 6, page 7 and page 13.

JAKARTA (JP): It is four o'clock in the morning and Berry has to get up to catch the five o'clock train from the small railway station near his house in Tigaraksa, Tangerang.

While he takes a bath in the 21-square-meter house, his wife, cooks breakfast for him and their three children.

Half an hour later he rushes to the station. It takes him over one and half an hours to reach Tanah Abang, where he gets a bus to his office in Kampung Melayu, Central Jakarta.

With no traffic jams the bus ride is a mere half an hour. But not this morning, the streets are jammed and it will take more than an hour to get there.

When the sun sets, the scramble is repeated in the opposite direction.

Such is life for Berry. With a salary of about Rp 350,000 per month, Berry, who works in administration at a private company, has no choice but to live in the small simple house in Tigaraksa, about 45 kilometers west of Jakarta.

Berry is not alone. Many people are forced to buy their houses outside Jakarta in the growing new towns.

An estimated three-million people who live in the boroughs or new townships surrounding Jakarta commute to the capital to work.

More than 20 new towns have mushroomed around the capital, mostly in the Bogor, Tangerang and Bekasi areas which are respectively 60, 35 and 30 kilometers from the city center.

These new towns have distinct differences.

Dormitory towns provide housing for those working in Jakarta but unable to afford a home in the city.

Satellite cities are like dormitory towns but have added public facilities such as health and recreation.

The third type is dubbed kota mandiri or a self-contained city with all the amenities necessary to support a thriving community independent of Jakarta.

These so called self-contained cities are usually about 500 hectares or more in size.

President of kota mandiri Bumi Serpong Damai (BSD), Budiarsa Sastrawinata, said a self-contained city needed housing, employment opportunities, health and recreational facilities, adequate infrastructure such as roads and to give strong consideration to environmental aspects.

In theory self-contained cities offer an attractive alternative to Jakarta's swelling population.

But how self-sustained are these new cities? Do they really provide relief for Jakarta or will they become an extension of mayoralties and burden further her overstrained infrastructure?

The intense rush hour traffic jams and clogged toll roads are indicators that the self-contained city concept is not truly successful in practice.

Budiarsa admits it is not easy to develop a truly self- contained city. He said it would take up to 25-years for BSD to fully develop.

Construction at BSD, about 25 kilometers from Jakarta, began eight years ago making it the oldest kota mandiri. It is projected to be 6,000 hectares. Only 1,300 hectares have been developed so far but the construction of an industrial estate to give "self-sufficient" employment for residents is beginning.

"Attracting people to live in a new town is not easy. You need time, between one to three years, to convince them they can live in the new town comfortably," said Budiarsa.

Lippo Karawaci, another kota mandiri in Tangerang, has developed a bit faster.

Backed by the Lippo group of companies, many of the necessary facilities for a self-contained city are in place. In fact Lippo's head office has moved to Karawaci from its prime location at Jl. Gatot Subroto, Central Jakarta.

But many employees still choose to reside in Jakarta. Superior schools, health and entertainment facilities are often cited reasons for remaining in the city, or going back to it.

So despite the attractive concept of self-contained cities, people often buy houses there as an alternative because they cannot afford one in the city, or for investment. This does not mean all houses outside Jakarta are relatively "cheap." Some cost hundreds of millions, even up to one billion, rupiah.

Property analyst, Panangian Simanungkalit, chairman of the Center for Indonesian Property Study (PSPI), said about 70 percent of people in Greater Jakarta could only afford to buy houses less than Rp 50 million per unit.

Therefore they can only buy a certain type of house -- the low-cost ones -- offered in the new towns outside the city.

Gigantic city

Ciputra, the chief commissioner of the Ciputra Group, said the development of new towns to cater for people in Greater Jakarta could not be avoided.

"As its population and economy grows, Greater Jakarta will see the emergence of many new towns. We cannot help it," he told The Jakarta Post.

He said in the future, Bogor, Tangerang, Bekasi and other new towns would become a gigantic city.

"Even Java will become a city, like Singapore," he remarked.

Simanungkalit underlined the importance of constructing adequate roads between the developing cities and Jakarta and other nearby cities.

"Otherwise, we'll see worse traffic jams every day," he told the Post.

Given that it will take up to a decade for a Kota Mandiri to fully develop its infrastructure, the realization of such a self- contained communities surrounding Jakarta still have a long way to go.

Just as real planetary satellites depend on their planets, these new townships will continue to depend on Jakarta as a lifeline for some years to come.