The Jakarta municipal government will build 17 artificial islands off the Indonesian capital’s coastline to make room for new property development, state media reported today.

“There are plans to build hotels, apartment blocks and office buildings,” deputy governor Basuki Tjajaja Purnama was quoted as saying by the state Antara news agency.

He said the reclaimed land would be leased to private developers.

The administration also said it will start building a sea wall in Jakarta Bay to protect the city of 10 million people from tidal flooding.

Jakarta - 40 percent of which lies below sea level - is prone to flooding in the wet season, made worse by clogged rivers, sewers and storm drains, and poor city planning.

Heavy flooding last month killed 26 people and displaced more than 50,000.

Similar floods in 2007 killed 57 people and forced more than 420,000 to leave their homes in the capital. Officials put the total damage at nearly US$695 million.

- dpa