T

he Public Works and Public Housing Ministry is preparing to build 10 apartment towers in Kemayoran, Central Jakarta, to house athletes competing in the 2018 Asian Games.

The ministry'€™s director general of housing, Syarif Burhanuddin, signed a contract with developers on Thursday worth Rp 3.5 trillion (US$266.8 million) at the ministry'€™s office in Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta.

The development is a joint project involving Abipraya-Indulexco and state-owned construction firms Waskita Karya, Adhi-Jaya Konstruksi-Penta and Wika Cakra. The ministry announced in a press release on Thursday that the construction of the apartments would finish in September 2017.

Syarif said he was optimistic that the project would be finished on time.

He added that construction would start with the contract signing on Thursday. '€œYou may check the construction sites, and you will see we have prepared everything we need to build the apartments,'€ Syarif said at his office.

A total of 7,424 apartments will be constructed on 10 hectares of land covering Block C2 and Block D10 of the Kemayoran Complex, owned by the State Secretariat. Block C2 will have three apartment towers built on it, with a total of 1,930 apartments, and Block D10 will have seven towers containing 5,494 apartments.

Each apartment will measure 36 square meters and feature a living room, kitchen and bathroom, space to dry clothes and two bedrooms. The ministry expects that each one will accommodate three athletes. The city'€™s total athlete accommodation capacity of 22,272 for the games exceeds International Olympic Committee standards, which require Olympics hosts to provide rooms for 14,000 athletes.

After the Asian Games, the government will convert the buildings into low-cost rental apartments, aiming to accommodate people evicted from riverbanks and slum areas as well as civil servants and others with limited income.

Syarif added that the apartments would be of three-star hotel standard. '€œAffordable for low- and middle-class people, including journalists and civil servants who may not be able to afford to buy houses,'€ he said.

He added that the Jakarta administration and the Kemayoran Complex management center (PPKK), assigned by the State Secretariat, may operate the apartments after the Asian Games, slated to be held from Aug. 18 to Sept. 2, 2018.

'€œ[Though] now we are focusing on finishing construction and we haven'€™t decided who the operators of the low-cost apartments will be,'€ Syarif said.

Outside of Jakarta, Palembang of South Sumatra as well as West Java and Banten will provide supporting venues for the games.

Jakarta will host events for 29 out of a total of 37 sports disciplines featured at the games, while Palembang is to host 11 events and West Java and Banten five and nine events, respectively. This distribution, however, is subject to change.

Aside from building the athletes'€™ village, the ministry is also tasked with revamping 14 venues within the Senayan Sports Complex. Only two venues, however '€” the swimming pool and the Gelora Bung Karno main stadium '€” will undergo major renovations.

As happened 56 years ago. Gelora Bung Karno Stadium will host the opening and closing ceremonies of the Games, the world'€™s second-biggest sporting event after the Olympics.