New cheap apartments to be built

JAKARTA (JP): The city administration is planning to erect prefabricated apartment buildings in Pondok Kelapa, East Jakarta, to provide housing for 1,5000 low-income households.

Ongky Sukasah, the head of the city housing office, told reporters on Tuesday that with prefabrication the city administration would be able to complete the project in three months.

"This will be much faster than the old system which would take nine months," he said. However, he said that there first should be "a special factory" to produce the building materials to be used in the construction of the apartments. But he did not go into further detail.

Ongky said that the land for the apartments had been appropriated, declining to elaborate on the total area of land.

He said the project would involve a foreign investor, Brycot of England.

The foreign partner will provide technical assistance as well as financing in the form of a soft loan for the project, he said, without mentioning how much money would be needed for the project.

He said that the city-owned company PD Pembangunan Sarana Jaya, chaired by Thamrin Djamain, will manage the apartments.

When completed, the apartment buildings will have five stories, with each apartment being 36 meters square.(32)