Tens of thousands to be evicted as airport expands
Multa Fidrus, The Jakarta Post, Tangerang
Tens of thousands of people living in seven subdistricts near Soekarno-Hatta International Airport will be evicted from their homes and land in the near future due to the planned expansion of the 1,800-hectare airport in Cengkareng, Tangerang.
The seven subdistricts consist of four -- Benda, Jurumudi Lama, Pajang, and Belendung -- in Benda district; and three -- Selapajang Jaya, Karangsari and Karanganyar -- in Negalasari district.
The Tangerang municipal administration has allocated some 567 hectares of land in the seven subdistricts for the airport expansion while the regency administration has provided 1,410 hectares in the area. The land clearance will start next month.
"We have no idea where else to move to because this is the third time the airport will have evicted residents from their villages," Yanto, a father of seven children living in Jurumudi Lama subdistrict, told The Jakarta Post on Friday.
Yanto, who drives a public minivan serving the Pasar Anyar- Jurumudi route, said that he, along with hundreds of his neighbors, had first been evicted to make way for the airport in 1972.
"I only received compensation of Rp 300 per square meter for my land, and then bought a piece of land to build a house at Rp 500 per square meter here. This means that I suffered a loss and had to make up the extra Rp 200 per square meter," he complained.
He said that in 1982, the airport was extended again and he was evicted once more. This time he was only paid compensation of Rp 1,000 per square meter. He had to buy another piece of land on which to build a house at a price of Rp 1,500 per square meter.
"Now, we hope that this will not happen again. Development should have given more advantages to the evicted residents, not merely losses piled on top of losses," he said. "If I move to Kalideres, I could be evicted again due to the Jakarta Outer Ring Road project. If I move to Teluk Naga, there's a seaport to be developed. To Tangerang town? I have no money and it's very expensive."
"Yes, it looks like we'll have to build floating houses in the sea so that there will be no more evictions," he added laughing.
But Sarmili, a resident of Selapajang subdistrict, said that he and other residents would file no objections as long as PT Perum Angkasa Pura, which manages the airport, provided them with fair compensation for their property.
"As of today, there has been no information about how much the company will pay us for our land," he said on Friday.
But he said several residents had agreed that Rp 1 million would be fair and adequate compensation per meter of land.
"Even with Rp 1 million per meter, there is still no guarantee that we will be able to afford to buy land and build houses in other places," Sarmili added.
The municipal administration secretary, Achmad Sudjai, who chairs the team responsible for the land acquisition, failed to answer a resident's question about how much compensation would be paid to evicted residents.
Speaking during a meeting with the residents on Thursday, Sudjai said that he could not as yet determine the amount of compensation per square meter as it would depend on the agreement later to be made between the residents and the team.