Perumnas may get land clearing permits

JAKARTA (JP): The city administration will hand over expired land clearing permits of all housing estate developer companies in Greater Jakarta to state-owned housing company Perum Perumnas III.

M. Latief Malangyudo, president of Perum Perumnas III, which is in charge of building houses in the greater Jakarta area, said over the weekend that the company, the city administration and the national land agency have been inventorying all land in Jakarta with expired land clearing permits.

Antara news agency reported that if a developer fails to clear land within two years then the city has the right to revoke the permit.

According to Latief, the inventorying is very important for the company since the company still needs around 15,000 hectares of land to meet the housing demand of the city dwellers.

However, Latief said that he is optimistic that the need for land will be fulfilled as in Bekasi alone there are around 1,000 hectares of land where the land clearing permits have expired.

Latief added that the land national agency has also committed to helping the company process the transfer of expired business land use permits.

The scarcity of land is not the only problem which hampers the city in giving proper housing for its people. The city also faces many housing developers who have failed to construct social and public facilities in their own projects, in accordance with development requirements here.

Deputy Governor for Economic and Development Affairs Tb. Rais told the news agency on Friday that the city administration will revoke the land use permits of all housing estate companies which fail to honor the obligation to build public facilities.

Tb. Rais asked the city administration officials to take strong measures against developers who fail to build the facilities.

According to a city regulation, every housing estate developer must construct a few social facilities, such as schools, places of worship, sport facilities and public facilities such as roads, parks and greeneries in their housing projects.

Those facilities should be handed over to the city to be managed under the city arrangement.

"They (housing estate developers) should be forced until they build and transfer it to the city because the lands are still the city's assets," the deputy governor said.

Rais also said that the completion of all social and public facilities will improve the company's image in the public eyes. "So I urged them not to feel burdened by the requirement to build such facilities," Rais said.

Speaking at the inauguration of various public and social facilities worth Rp 3.65 billion (US$1.66 million) in the Sunter area, North Jakarta, Rais said that up to now the city has revoked many land use permits of developers.

Governor Surjadi has repeatedly stated that strong measures will await the recalcitrant developers. He also admitted that the ignorance of the city officials also contributes to such recalcitrancy. (mas)