Surjadi denies slums razed for apartments

JAKARTA (JP): Governor Surjadi Soedirdja denies the accusation that his administration has been burning slum areas in order to make way for low cost apartment projects.

The plan to build apartments had nothing to do with the increasing number of fires in the city's slum areas, Surjadi said Friday when inaugurating three apartment buildings in Semper Barat, Sukapura and Penjaringan in North Jakarta.

"It would be naive to think that the administration set fire to, for instance, slum houses to make way for a new apartment on the site," he said.

"The apartment program has been running long before so many fires were recorded in the capital," he said.

Surjadi said he had heard of accusations by fire victims that the administration deliberately burned their property and then banned them from rebuilding their homes in order to create empty plots for its cheap apartment program.

Many things that could have caused the fires, he said.

"A densely populated area with wooden houses close to each other is prone to fire. A stove explosion or a short circuit will ignite the area immediately," he said.

The long dry season was a major cause of fires in many areas of the city, Surjadi said.

"The hot air and high temperatures have the potential to start a fire. So you must be very careful to prevent this," he told residents of the three new apartment buildings in Semper Barat, Sukapura and Penjaringan.

The apartments are aimed to improve poor people's dignity. "It's better to live in apartments then to live in slum areas."

"We can't afford to build houses horizontally because land prices are too high. The only way is to build vertically," the outgoing governor said.

The Semper Barat apartment is built on a 5,688-square-meter plot on Jl. Semper which used to belong to the city cleaning agency. The Rp 6.2 billion (US$2.14 million) project has two six- story blocks. It was built by state-owned developer Perumnas.

The Sukapura apartment is built on a 2,000-square-meter plot on Jl. Manunggal Juang. It has one six-story block and cost Rp 3.36 billion to build.

The other project, the Penjaringan apartment, is built on a 5,692-square-meter plot on Jl. Tanah Pasir which was gutted by fire recently. It has two five-story blocks.

All units in the three apartment complexes have tap water, an electricity generator, garbage installation units, parks, sports fields, minimarts and administration offices.

Governor Surjadi thanked everybody who had worked to make the cheap apartments a success.

"I will no longer be your governor, but I appeal to you, please keep this program running. And to all the people who finally have a decent home, take good care of this building. Keep it clean and green," he said.

Surjadi on Friday also led the groundbreaking ceremony to build luxury apartments in Pantai Mutiara over a reclamation area in Pluit, North Jakarta.

Dharmala Intiland Group, the developer, says Pantai Mutiara will have six 20-story towers complete with sport facilities.

It is modeled on Australia's Gold Coast housing complex. (07)