Manggarai residents urged to remain calm

Manggarai residents urged to remain calm

JAKARTA (JP): Governor Surjadi Soedirdja has urged residents
of Manggarai, South Jakarta, whose land may be appropriated to
make way for the construction of a huge integrated transport
terminal, to remain calm.

The governor told the residents yesterday that the project,
the cost of which has been estimated to be about US$285 million,
would not cause them to suffer.

"I assure you that the consortium in charge of handling the
project's construction will set the compensation in line with the
existing regulations," Surjadi said at City Hall yesterday.

Under the existing regulations compensation for land
appropriated for government-sponsored projects is calculated on
the basis of a number of factors, including the taxable value of
the land and current market prices.

In a another current land appropriation dispute in Kemayoran,
Central Jakarta, residents have so far refused to accept the
compensation offered to them by the Kemayoran development board,
which wants to use the land for a business district development.
The board has offered the residents compensation ranging between
Rp 300,000 and Rp 700,000 per square meter of land. The residents
claim they need to be paid Rp 2 million per square meter in order
to buy new homes.

The governor made the remarks in response to demands by the
residents for transparency in the provision of compensation for
their land.

The residents asked both the private consortium developing the
terminal and the government to inform them about the compensation
and which areas would be cleared for the project so as to avoid
confusion. They claimed that they had not been provided with a
single piece of information about the project, which is to
jointly managed by a the developer and the state railway company
Perumka.

The consortium which is to carry out the project consists of
seven companies: PT Bandar Mardi Perkasa, PT Cahaya Cipta
Adicemerlang, PT Citra Agratama Persada, PT Mitraguna Tribhakti,
PT Pembangunan Jaya, PT Sekar Artha Sentosa and PT Suhamthabie
Utama.

The project, which is expected to be completed by the year
2006, will cover a total area of 126 hectares, of which 72
hectares are owned by Perumka and the remaining 52 hectares are
currently owned by local residents.

The terminal will consist of a railway station with 22 railway
lines at street level; four underground express railway lines; an
inter-city bus terminal able to accommodate 3,600 buses per day;
a city bus terminal with a capacity of 5,760 buses per day; a
taxi terminal; and several hotels.

The terminal is intended to be capable of accommodating 6.5
million passengers per day. Besides terminals and hotels, the
project will also be equipped with business centers and new
residential sites.

The governor said that land compensation would be determined
by a process consisting of a number of steps.

"The first step is to list the plots of land in the area,
followed by the registration of their owners, and so on," he
said.

Surjadi said that the project was currently still being
planned by executives of the consortium in cooperation with the
city administration, having been presented to President Soeharto
on Monday.

"The consortium is still breaking down the details of the
project design," Surjadi said.

He added that a public presentation on the project, to explain
areas to be affected by the project, would be held as soon as the
details of the design had been worked out.

"Don't worry, there will be a public presentation about this
matter," Surjadi said. (yns)