Rules for building underground being formulated: BPN

JAKARTA (JP): The National Land Agency (BPN) is preparing regulations on land use and ownership in areas set aside for underground projects in the city, an official said yesterday.

Minister for Agrarian Affairs/Chairman of BPN Soni Harsono said the regulations would create a strong legal basis for future underground project.

Speaking after a seminar on surveying and underground mapping, Soni said the rules will cover, among other things, land ownership, land use appropriation and land use planning.

"The rules will set a limit on underground land ownership. It will also deal with certain rights and obligations for the prospective underground plot owners."

The conceptual rights of ownership, to be titled Rights for Underground Plots, will describe how to develop an underground construction, including the designs, land adjustments and land preservation.

The regulations will be implemented in a similar manner to those applicable to apartments.

"In apartments there are certain personal and public properties. The same thing applies to the new regulations on underground plots.

"To build a construction under the ground is very complicated. The condition of the soil, the land above it and below it must also be seriously considered.

"Therefore, the underground planning project must be 100 percent accurate and cannot be done in a haphazard manner. Accuracy in the planning is needed to avoid unnecessary expenses."

Soni said it was time for Jakarta to concentrate on developing underground areas.

"We must create underground spaces as all the aboveground sites for economic and social activities have already been saturated," he said.

Governor Sutiyoso pledged yesterday to start the first underground project next year at the National Monument (Monas) park in Central Jakarta.

"The first underground project will be in the form of an underground parking lot," he said.

Sutiyoso had earlier announced the city's plan to develop the Monas area into a city park and build several supporting structures underground, including a station for the light rail system (LRT) as part of the three-tier transit system, which will run from Bintaro in South Jakarta to Kota in West Jakarta.

The construction of the underground parking lot will start next year and is expected to be completed by 1999, while work on the LRT station will start in 2001.

"In other big cities in the world, such as Tokyo, London and New York, about 30 percent of their residents run their activities from underground areas."

Sutiyoso said that thorough underground mapping was badly needed to organize the underground cable network and the Thamrin Beautification project.

He also announced his plan to review the overlapping routes of the planned subway project and three-tier transit project.

"If there are certain overlapping routes, the municipality will certainly review them in order to obtain efficient routes in the future," he said.

Yesterday's seminar featured several noted urban planning experts, including Astawa Rai, Joenil Kahar and T.A. Sanny, all from the Bandung Institute of Technology.

Exhibitions regarding the survey and underground mapping were also held, with presentations from related agencies such as the Jakarta City Planning Agency and Association of the Indonesian Surveying and Mapping Enterprises. (07)