Observers have urged the city administration to scrap reclamation projects from its city spatial planning following a Supreme Court ruling that deemed similar past projects were in fact illegal.
Chairman of Jakarta chapter of the Indonesian Forum of Environment (Walhi) Ubaidillah said all parties, including the administration, should abide by the court's ruling.
"The reclamation plan of the North Coast disadvantages citizens and it should be stopped unless the development plan has met the environmental conceptions," he said.
The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Environment Ministry, allowing it to uphold its 2003 decree against the city's reclamation and revitalization plan of Jakarta's North Coast.
The ruling, announced at the Supreme Court's website, annulled the verdict of Jakarta Administrative Court (PTUN) in 2003 that declared the decree rejecting the plan to reclaim 2,700 hectares of the area, was unlawful and ordered the minister's office to revoke it immediately.
The case started when the Environment Ministry under former minister Nabiel Makarim issued the decree stating that relevant companies that have business relations with BP Pantura, a body established to manage the North Coast development must stop their cooperation because the environmental impact analysis (Amdal) they made was considered inappropriate.
The ministry ordered them to conduct a new analysis through the 2003 decree.
There are six companies under BP Pantura's umbrella; PT Bakti Bangun Era Mulia, PT Taman Harapan Indah, PT Manggala Krida Yudha, PT Pelabuhan Indonesia II, PT Pembangunan Jaya Ancol and PT Jakarta Propertindo.
They planned to build luxury houses, hotels, condominiums, an industrial zone, a port, business centers, massive shopping malls, offices and recreation places by reclaiming the coastal area in Northern Jakarta. The project is expected to be completed within 30 years.
The companies then filed a lawsuit against the decree, which they considered would cause them to suffer a financial losses after investing huge sums of money in the project.
To date no city administration officials or the companies' representatives could be reached for comment on the development.
According to director of Jakarta branch of Indonesia Legal Foundation (LBH-Jakarta) Nurkholis Hidayat said since the Environment Ministry did not approve the Amdal for the project, it supposed to be stopped while waiting for the legal process to be finished.
"Unfortunately the project continues. So the legal violations keeps going on and that makes all buildings or reclamation areas made *while the legal process going on* are illegal," he said.
The violators he said were not only the companies under BP Pantura, but also the city administration because it had legitimized the reclamation through its 2005/2010 spatial planning
"As a consequence, the city administration must remove *its support* from the *project* and there must be an evaluation to the existing condition of the North Coast and to the impact of the reclamation that has been made," Nurkholis said.
From the evaluation results could be seen whether the existing buildings must be demolished.
"Even if the project is allowed to continue, there must be a new impact analysis that meets all the environmental conceptions," he said.
