Manggarai station likely to be on revised spatial plan

Manggarai station likely to be on revised spatial plan

JAKARTA (JP): Discussions are continuing on the inclusion of
all planned projects, including the Manggarai terminal, in the
reviewed urban spatial plan, a councilor said Saturday.

Bandjar Marpaung, who heads Commission D on development
affairs, said the spatial plan would include a subway, a three-
tiered road and a waterfront city.

But this did not mean all projects in the 1985-2005 plan would
be approved, he said.

"In the old plan, Manggarai was designated as a terminal
site," he said.

The city would only build an integrated public transportation
project if it had priority and demand, Bandjar told The Jakarta
Post.

Bandjar was responding to reports that the city was trying to
include all planned projects in the reviewed 1985-2005 spatial
plan. Other officials were unavailable for comment.

The Kontan economic tabloid reported on March 31 that the fate
of the planned inter-city bus and train station in Manggarai
would be determined in April when the plan was completed.

The report did not identify its sources.

The head of the city's development planning board, Budihardjo,
said earlier that the reviewed plan would be completed in April.

Officials and urban planners have said the review is needed
because the city is growing.

The Manggarai proposal was made public in late 1994 when the
chairperson of the consortium behind the project, Siti Hardiyanti
Rukmana, presented the plan to President Soeharto, accompanied by
Minister of Transportation Haryanto Dhanutirto.

Haryanto said the small Manggarai bus terminal would be turned
into a four-story station on a 72-hectare site, serving 22
tracks, four underground express trains, inter-city buses,
minibuses and taxis. A business district, apartments and a
shopping center were also planned for the site.

The project was estimated to cost US$285 million and mean the
eviction of 4,000 people on 124 hectares in and around the site.

The project was controversial because officials, former
governor Ali Sadikin and other retired officials said it was
against city policy, which aimed to move inter-city bus terminals
to the outskirts.

Ciputra, a former director of the developer PT Pembangunan
Jaya, which is partially owned by the city, is a member of the
manggarai consortium. Ciputra has said that the project can start
this year.

But by late last year the city had not received any details on
the plan.

Bandjar, a House member of the dominant Golkar, said that,
given traffic conditions, the government and the municipality
should prioritize the subway and three-tiered road before the
terminal.

The 14.5-kilometer subway from Blok M, South Jakarta, to Kota
in West Jakarta has been proposed by a consortium led by Aburizal
Bakrie.

On Friday, Aburizal said the investors in the consortium, the
Indonesia Japan Europe Group, would present a financial plan in
four months.

The three-tiered road, to include an elevated toll road and an
elevated railway from Bintaro, South Jakarta, to Kota has been
proposed by the private toll-road builder PT Citra Lamtoro Gung
Persada. (ste)