Three-tier transit system proposed for revised plans

JAKARTA (JP): A company planning to build a three-tier transit system will approach the city administration to try to include the project in the revised urban spatial plan, the company's spokesperson said yesterday.

Head of the Citra Group public relations department, M. Fariza Y. Irawady, said the company would present the plan to the City's Spatial Agency tomorrow.

The group set up a joint venture, PT Citramoda Margakencana Persada, to build the Rp 6.05 trillion (US$2.58 billion) project last month.

After establishing the company Fariza said, "...there are several stages to be done before the project can be included in the revised spatial plan."

He was responding to a presentation Friday of the revised 1985/2010 spatial plan which did not include the widely publicized three-tier transit system.

The system includes an elevated railway with a capacity of 12,000 passengers an hour, connecting Bintaro in South Jakarta to downtown Kota, West Jakarta.

The company consists of PT Citra Lamtoro Gung Persada -- owned by Siti Hardiyanti Rukmana -- state railway company Perumka and the state-owned highway corporation PT Jasa Marga.

Fariza said the company was aware of regulations that the project should be included in the revised spatial plans before it could start construction.

The new spatial plans have to be approved by Governor Surjadi Soedirdja, City Council Speaker M.H. Ritonga and Minister of Home Affairs Moch. Yogie S.M.

Fariza said the three-tier transit system would be built according to the initial schedule in December this year. Construction work is due to start in Bintaro, South Jakarta.

Councilor Lukman F. Mokoginta of Commission D in charge of development affairs had said revision of the spatial plans would take a long time. The city would have to take various considerations into account including the project's effect on its surroundings, he said.

Lukman also blamed city administration for not including the project in the revised plans if it considered the proposal important to the city.

Fariza said the company was now presenting the project to prospective banks.

"The (banks) will be announced soon after their involvement in the project is confirmed," he said.

The city's assistant secretary on economic and development affairs, Prawoto S. Danoemihardjo, said earlier that a team had been set up to handle land appropriation for the project.

Land appropriation for the project was expected to be completed in July while the project would be completed by 2001, he said.

Prawoto said the amount to be paid for land compensation has not yet been determined, but it would likely be based on the city-set land value in the area.

Meanwhile, head of the North Jakarta Reclamation Implementation Board M. Sidharta said the project was ready to support the area's rapid growth as anticipated in the revised spatial plan.

"We have completed the project's detailed plan including construction and reclamation stages," Sidharta said yesterday.

He said the board was still completing the project's regional environmental impact study.

The plan consists of business, residential, recreational and tourist attractions stretching 32 kilometers along the Jakarta Bay, from Pluit in the west to Cilincing in the east. (ste)