0 Badung to spend Rp 18 billion on green areas

Badung administration will willingly spend Rp 18 billion (US$1.86 million) on renovating green areas in the central reservation of roads and along pedestrian walkways heading to Nusa Dua resort complex, the planned venue of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in November 2013. Badung Regent AA Gde Agung said that the public park renovation program would cover the upgrading of pedestrian walkways, planting of decorative trees and plant canopies and road improvement projects. 

The regent also said Kuta Beach and its surroundings would have its pedestrian walkways widened and the beach would be cleaned. “All the renovation projects require heavy funding and we are ready to finance them,” said the regent. Badung is the richest regency in Bali and is home to hundreds of luxury hotels, villas and other tourist accommodation. Putu Eka Mertawan, head of Badung sanitation and landscape office, said that the public park renovation would cover 12 kilometers of road along Jl. Bypass Ngurah Rai to Nusa Dua. 

Mertawan said that Badung was the first regency in Bali that had been included in the Public Works Ministry’s Green City Development (P2KH) scheme. “This is the central government’s urban development project to improve the quality of cities and regencies across Indonesia,” he explained. The initial stage of the project would focus on planning and developing open, green spaces encompassing 30 percent of each regency or city and would involve local communities in the projects. 

Rido Matari Ichwan, director for program and partnership at the directorate general for spatial planning at the Public Works Ministry, said that there were 60 cities and regencies, including Badung, that had been included in the program. The ministry, he said, had allocated Rp 150 billion in funding to accelerate the project in the 60 locations. “Every city and regency will get Rp 1.5 billion additional funding from the ministry,” Ichwan explained. The 60 cities and regencies were selected for inclusion in the project as their leaders had shown strong commitment to creating a green city or green regency. 

“They were also committed to allocating funding from their own budgets for the projects,” he added. In addition to renovating parks along Kuta and Nusa Dua, Badung also plans to build a city forest within the Udayana University campus in Jimbaran. Badung will also build a special park where hundreds of frangipani flower species will be planted in an area close to the Badung administration’s offices in Mengwi.

source : bali daily