New township to be built in Lebak

JAKARTA (JP): The government will coordinate the development of a 9,000-hectare town in Maja, West Java, to cater for the growing need for housing in Greater Jakarta, Minister of Public Housing Akbar Tandjung said.

Speaking after a meeting with President Soeharto here yesterday, Tandjung said that at least 16 developers would be involved in the massive housing project.

The minister said the government and the 16 developers would jointly draft a masterplan for the planned town in Lebak, West Java, about 50 kilometers west of here.

He said the 16 developers would then design plans for their own housing projects in the new town.

"The developers will build about 450,000 houses in the new city. If we presume that a family four will live in every house then the city will have a population of about 1.8 million," he said.

The houses would be designed for middle and lower income earners in Jakarta, Bogor, and Tangerang, he said.

"I told the President that coordination was needed to integrate development infrastructure in the area," Tandjung said.

He said new towns would continue to emerge in Greater Jakarta due to the city's growing demand for housing.

"We need to manage them to ensure they are integrated according to government policy," he said.

More than 20 new towns have surfaced around Jakarta, mostly in Bogor, Tangerang, and Bekasi, respectively 60, 35 and 30 kilometers from the city's center.

A number of developers recently announced plans to build new towns including in Jonggol and near Cibubur, in eastern Greater Jakarta.

He said President Soeharto had instructed all government agencies concerned to coordinate the development of the new towns.

The government will set up an agency to coordinate housing development. "Right now the supervisory board of housing development is in charge of it," he said. The board is under the ministry of public housing.

Tandjung said the government would continue to build simple houses for the general public. During the sixth five year development plan, which ends on March 31, 1999, the government intends to build 500,000 simple houses.

About 400,000 have been built, he said.

He said a number of simple apartments would be also built in Jakarta, Surabaya, Batam and other big cities to provide housing for the poor.

On the property market, Tandjung said the market for cheap and medium-priced housing was still promising.

"Only the up-market housing market is sluggish. We still see a strong market for medium-priced and cheap houses," he said, adding that the general election was not affecting the property sector much.

Tandjung also told President Soeharto that Indonesia would host the 49th congress of the world association of developers next year. (bnt)