Pembangunan Jaya Ancol to reclaim 300 ha coast

JAKARTA (JP): PT Pembangunan Jaya Ancol plans to reclaim 300 hectares of the Ancol coast over the next 10 years to expand its famed Ancol Dreamland, the company announced yesterday.

Head of the company's real estate bureau, Ridwan Pohan, said that the first phase of the Rp 500 billion (US$223 million) project would commence next year. He said 50 hectares would be reclaimed during the first phase.

"The project will be begun early next year -- as soon as the city administration issues the permit," Ridwan said, adding that the first phase would involve reclamation to the west of the existing recreational complex.

Pohan was speaking at a one-day seminar on land reclamation held by the local committee of the Brussels-based Association Internationale des Etudiantes en Sciences et Commerciales.

He said that the city administration, which owns 80 percent of the company, had given a green light to the project but was still awaiting the master plan of the land reclamation, which is expected to be completed in November.

He said the company had already carried out the necessary environmental impact analysis and that the plan had been approved by the city's environmental agency.

"The company has fulfilled the requirements set buy the administration. Besides, we are experienced in land reclamation," Ridwan said.

Ridwan said that in the 1960s the company reclaimed swamps in the Ancol area to establish the 550-hectare Ancol Dreamland.

He said the new project would be divided into three phases. The first, focused on the western side of the existing complex, would be used for residential development, he said. The second phase will be to the east, where the company intends to build a housing complex and golf course. In the third phase, the company plans to build an amusement center in the middle of the reclaimed area.

An executive of the city administration who requested anonymity said that the management of Ancol Dreamland had been planning further reclamation along the north coast long before the city announced its plan to build a waterfront city on reclaimed land.

The source confirmed that PT Pembangunan Jaya Ancol already has the principal permit.

"But the city administration has decided to postpone issuing the operational permit until the master plan for the northern sea reclamation plan has been finished," said the source.

The city administration intends to gain about 2,500 hectares of new land from the sea to Jakarta's north for the development of a new waterfront city. The project is expected to begin early next year.

The city development board predicts that the project will require about 200 million cubic meters of fill material, which is to be taken from the coast of West Java at places including Tanjung Kait, Pamanukan and Merak, as well as from the Jakarta bay itself.(yns)