Planned bus terminal becomes huge fish pond

Planned bus terminal becomes huge fish pond

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

It is hard to believe that the swampy area with a huge fish pond
right in the center is actually supposed to be the Rp 60 billion
(US$7 million) Pulo Gebang intercity bus terminal in East
Jakarta.

It was supposed to become operational in 2001, but
construction has been slower than molasses.

The only sign of that construction work is some upturned soil
on one side of the pond and the 2-meter high wall encircling the
10.9-hectare compound, around a kilometer from the East Jakarta
municipality office.

"The last construction work was done five months ago," Kirin,
75, a resident whose home is just a few meters away from the
compound, pointing to a new section of the wall.

"But nothing has happened since," said the old man, who was
taking his ducks to the pond, which is also used by Saturday
morning fishing enthusiasts.

The field situation is much worse than what had been reported
to the City Council's commission D that oversees development
affairs. The commission was criticizing the construction of the
bus terminal with councillors so astutely deducing that it was
going at a "snail's pace".

"The city administration must be more serious in the planning
as well in the implementation of the environmental impact
analysis study before embarking on a project and committing
budgetary funds, or it is just a waste of the public's money,"
said the commission's head Koeswadi Soesilohardjo.

The commission released a statement on Thursday after
assessing the city's 2003 budget on development affairs.

The terminal had been intended to replace the crowded
Pulogadung bus terminal, also in East Jakarta, which could no
longer accommodate the increasing number of buses.

Pulogadung terminal is also notorious for rampant thuggery
targeting would-be bus passengers.

The commission questioned the use of Rp 60 billion of city
fund and, therefore, demanded a thorough probe of the spending in
the project by the Jakarta Audit Agency (Bawasda) and the
Development Finance Comptroller (BPKP).

Meanwhile, Jakarta Transportation Agency head Rustam Effendy
seemed reluctant to comment on the stalled project.

After being pressed further, he admitted that his office was
still facing problems with land acquisition.

Kirin, who also happens to be an owner of 300-square meters of
that land, confirmed that, while saying that he and his fellow
land owners had refused to sell to the city at the prices offered
by the administration.

"They're offering me a meager Rp 325,000 per square meter,
only a half of the current sales and property tax value (NJOP)
around the area which averages around Rp 750,000," he lamented,
while adding that he would only sell the land for Rp 2 million
per square meter.

The real market value is usually higher than the NJOP.

The East Jakarta municipality has already received Rp 13.4
billion from the city budget for land compensation alone.

It said earlier that it would not find it difficult to acquire
the remaining 1.9 hectares of land for the construction project
since most of the land was owned by state-owned property company
Perumnas.

The planned terminal was expected to accommodate 1,400 buses
per day. It will be far larger than the existing 3.3-hectare
Pulogadung terminal.