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LRT depot construction faces delay amid land dispute
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An LRT car from South Korea is unloaded from a ship after arriving at Tanjung Priok Port on Friday. (kompas.com/Ardito Ramadhan)
T
he Transportation Ministry’s plan to start depot construction for light rapid transit (LRT) in Jatimulya district, Tambun Selatan, Bekasi, is likely to face a three-month delay amid a land dispute.
“At first we planned to start constructing [LRT depot] in March, but we postponed it to June this year,” said ministry official Jumardi as quoted by wartakota.tribunnews.com on Sunday.
Several representatives from community units in Jatimulya have reportedly sought legal counsel.
The residents’ coordinator, Sondi Silalahi, said they would voluntarily vacate the contested land if the government involved them in talks on compensation. Sondi said the 500 families had only received a notification letter telling them that there would be LRT construction in the area.
“Most of us are low-income people who have been living here for 25 to 30 years. Please consider that,” Sondi said.
Jumardi said the government was open to negotiations, even though it would only compensate the loss of the buildings because, according to him, the land belonged to the government.
“We’ll invite [the residents] for negotiations once they officially appoint a lawyer,” he said, adding that the government had allocated Rp1.9 trillion (US$138 million) for land acquisition. (vla/wit)
