Mayor ordered to get tough with developers

JAKARTA (JP): Jakarta Governor Surjadi Soedirdja ordered North Jakarta Mayor Suprawito yesterday to get tough with developers who failed to deliver the required public and social facilities.

"I call on the mayor to take stern action against developers who refuse to abide by the rules," Surjadi said when inaugurating luxury apartments in Sunter, North Jakarta.

A 1990 gubernatorial decree stipulates that private developers must build social and public facilities, such as school buildings, hospitals, bridges, places of worship and parks, and transfer their ownership and management to the local administration.

The administration can impose sanctions against errant developers, such as refusing to process their building permit applications. However, the it has rarely taken such a tough stance, giving developers time to comply.

The City Council estimated last year that 77 developers owed the administration facilities worth Rp 600 billion (US$200 million).

Surjadi said yesterday that the administration's patience had run out.

Developers were delaying building and only transferring the public facilities to the administration in installments, he said.

Such a tactic was at the expense of public services. "The developers are slowing down the administration's work," he said.

Public and social facilities played an important part in the city's spatial plan, he said. "They improve the environment because they also provide larger green areas between the new buildings," said the governor who ends his five-year term next month.

Surjadi made his remarks while presiding at the soft opening of the Cempaka Sunter apartments. The event was attended by the head of the Jakarta Fire Agency, Suharso, and the head of the Jakarta Tourism Agency, Fauzi Bowo.

The Cempaka Sunter apartment consists of 60 homes in three eight-story blocks. Built on a 15,652-square-meter plot, the apartments cost Rp 8.6 billion and were built in 12 months by PT Wisata Niaga.

Mayor Suprawito said his office had received 12 public and social facilities in the area, including hospitals, bridges, a drainage network and the Sunter Jaya subdistrict office, complete with the homes for doctors and the subdistrict chief.

The new accommodation was aimed at Indonesian executives and expatriates, with monthly rents ranging from $1,500 for a 100- square-meter apartment to $1,750 for a 120-square-meter one, Kadarman of Sunter Cempaka said.

"We've established cooperation links with Collier Jardine," Kadarman said, referring to the well-known property consultancy company. Fifteen of the 60 apartments have already been occupied. (07)