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BPN to get tough on land acquisition for Jakarta toll roads
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Workers construct part of the Bekasi-Cawang-Kampung Melayu (Becakayu) toll road in East Jakarta, March 31. (ANTARA FOTO/Widodo S Jusuf)
T
he National Land Agency (BPN) will reappraise the value of land on which toll roads are to be built in Greater Jakarta in a bit to settle price disputes affecting most of the projects.
Agrarian and Spatial Planning Minister Ferry Mursyidan Baldan, who also heads the BPN, said most of the affected landowners were developers trying to take advantage by setting sky-high prices, while in the long term, they would be the main beneficiaries of the toll roads.
In a meeting also attended by the Minister of State-Owned Enterprises and the Minister of Public Works and Public Housing two weeks ago, the government decided to act on the basis of the 2012 law on land acquisition, which grants the state the authority to seize land if this is in the public interest.
"We will enforce the land acquisition law, setting the price and paying [the owners]. The reappraisal is needed, because we have been letting the process stall for years," Ferry told The Jakarta Post in Jakarta on Thursday.
Previously, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo visited stalled toll road projects in the Greater Jakarta area, including the Depok-Antasari toll road project in South Jakarta, the Bekasi-Kampung Melayu toll road project in East Jakarta and the Bogor-Ciawi-Sukabumi toll road project in West Java.
The 2012 law on land acquisition for basic infrastructure is supposed to have made land acquisition problems easier to solve. "The law is the legal basis for accelerating projects in the field," Ferry said, highlighting that the process would be completed before the end of the year. (ags)
