The city administration said it would not abide a Supreme Court ruling that a review of the environmental impact analysis for a reclamation project was needed, and instead prompted the developers involved to fight the ruling.
“It’s still possible to file a judicial review. We hope the six developers win the case,” Made Suarjaya, the head of the law dispute division at the city’s legal bureau, said Friday.
He said the city gave its full support because the six developers cooperated with the Management Body (BP) Pantura, a body established by the city to manage the North Coast development.
Suarjaya said the administration insisted on going ahead with the reclamation since the ruling did not require the administration to halt the project.
The statement came after Environment Minister Gusti Muhammad Hatta said earlier Thursday that his office would stop all reclamation projects.
“We will try — at least for the near future — not to allow any reclamation work,” Gusti said.
“We will also review the existing projects,” he said, but did not disclose details of the immediate action his office would take against the six developers.
The Supreme Court ruling annulled a 2003 verdict by the Jakarta Administrative Court, which ruled the decree rejecting the plan to reclaim 2,700 hectares of the North Coast was unlawful and ordered the ministry to immediately revoke it.
The 2003 decree, issued by the Environment Ministry under then minister Nabiel Makarim, ordered the six companies to conduct a new analysis because the environmental impact analysis they made was considered inadequate.
The companies — PT Bakti Bangun Era Mulia, PT Taman Harapan Indah, PT Manggala Krida Yudha, PT Pelabuhan Indonesia II, PT Pembangunan Jaya Ancol and PT Jakarta Propertied — then filed a lawsuit against the decree.
They said the decree caused them financial losses after they had invested huge sums into the project.
The companies had planned to build luxury houses, hotels, condominiums, an industrial zone, a port, business centers, massive shopping malls, offices and recreational areas by reclaiming coastal areas in North Jakarta. The project is expected to be completed within 30 years.
PT Pembangunan Jaya Ancol’s legal head Sunutomo said his company would study the Supreme Court ruling.
“We don’t want to make a mistake if we take a hasty decision,” he said, hinting that his company would consider filing a judicial review.
Hydrologist Firdaus Ali said reclamation of the city’s coastal areas was not dangerous as long as developers conducted a proper assessment.
He said the environmental impact from reclamation would be manageable if the technology was applied properly.
“It would create problems if the developers were greedy and tried to play down large negative impacts and overemphasize the positive aspects to maximize profit,” he said.
However, some other experts and environmentalist activists disagree, saying the plan threatened the
environment.
They said problems in the northern part of the city, which was regularly hit by flash floods, would be exacerbated with the impact of global warming and rising sea levels.
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