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City continues stadium construction amid unfinished legal matters
Around 20 excavators and giant cranes could be seen operating on a muddy 26-hectare site in Papanggo subdistrict, North Jakarta, on Tuesday afternoon
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span>Around 20 excavators and giant cranes could be seen operating on a muddy 26-hectare site in Papanggo subdistrict, North Jakarta, on Tuesday afternoon.
Some workers were also seen adjusting approximately 2-meter high steel bars that will be used as foundation materials for the construction of the Jakarta International Stadium.
The ambitious Rp 4.5 trillion (US$315.5 million) project is expected to finish by the end of October 2021. However, while construction rolls on at the site, legal matters relating to land clearance remain.
An appeal to the Supreme Court has been filed by private developer PT Buana Permata Hijau (BPH) against the city administration’s construction of the stadium on the site.
BPH argues that around 6.9 ha of the land on which the stadium is being built overlaps on its property.
The dispute started in 2014, when BPH filed a civil suit against the construction of the stadium at the Jakarta Administrative Court (PTUN). The lawsuit was initially filed after BPH discovered that the first land clearance effort in 1994 by the city administration did not involve any discussions in its procedure.
According to Damianus Renjaan, the company’s lawyer, the land clearance procedure should have been discussed with stakeholders as stipulated in Presidential Regulation (Perpres) No. 55/1993.
He added that the lawsuit not only related to overlapping land claims, but it was also about the consignment of funds by the city administration to the North Jakarta District Court in 1994. Damianus said, a witness who testified before the court in 2014 the consignment funds were not paid by the city administration. Instead, the source of the funding came from developer company PT Agung Podomoro Land.
“There was certainly a private business interest in this matter,” he told The Jakarta Post by phone.
The administrative court issued a verdict in favor of BPH in May 2019. But, after the city administration made an appeal, the Jakarta Administrative High Court (PTTUN) ruled in favor of the city administration in October 2019.
The court ruling means the two land-use permit certificates are found to be legal, justifying the city in continuing to build the world-class stadium on the site.
“We requested a discussion with the city administration two weeks ago, but we got no response,” Damianus said.
“It is regrettable that the administration keeps continuing the construction amid the unfinished legal matter,” he added.
Responding to BPH appeal to the Supreme Court, the head of the Jakarta Legal Bureau, Yayan Yuhannah, said that discussions with BPH were unnecessary as the city administration would only follow the court ruling. However, since the high court has ruled in favor of the city, Yayan declined to give a further response regarding the matter.
The international stadium was first initiated during Fauzi Bowo’s administration in 2008 but the project stalled. It was only in March of last year that the groundbreaking of the project was held by Governor Anies Baswedan, with city-owned developer PT Jakarta Propertindo (Jakpro) at the helm of the project overseeing state-owned contractor PT Wijaya Karya (Wika), property developer PT PP Property and construction firm PT Jaya Konstruksi who works on the project.
According to Iwan Takwin, Jakpro’s project director for the stadium, some Rp 900 billion had been spent on the stadium construction and research in 2019. He added that the budget estimation for this year was about Rp 2 trillion and construction was expected to reach 70 percent completion by the end of the year.
As of this week, however, the project was reported at only 19 percent of total construction. Despite the sluggish progress, Jakpro is still upbeat about completing the project next year.
On the site, Jakpro’s construction manager, Erfianto Riesa Nursamsi could not deny that there were also complaints filed by local residents regarding the noise and dust problems produced by the project, which employs 1,200 workers. (trn)
