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Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono launched a mammoth tourism project in Lombok on Friday that critics contend will lead to the forced displacement of about 400 residents.

The Mandalika resort project, in Kuta, Central Lombok, is expected to cost about Rp 27 trillion and will include five-star hotels, a convention center, sports and health facilities, a lagoon and a marina.

“We will need Rp 27 trillion to develop this area,” Yudhoyono said. “We wouldn’t be able to sleep just thinking about that sum, which is the equivalent of some $3 billion.”

The project will involve the state-owned Bali Tourism Development Corporation and several private companies including Global Internasional, the MNC Group and the Rajawali Group.

But Wahijan, who heads the provincial chapter of the Indonesian Farmers Association, said 400 people — farmers and their families — were at risk of being forcibly evicted from their land.

“Many of these farmers have up until now not received any payment for their land. And if they do get paid, the sum involved is really low, less than Rp 200,000 per hectare, and some have even been paid with secondhand clothes,” he said.

Wahijan said the authorities needed to come up with a fair solution for the 400 people including where they would be moved to.

He said the experience of farmers evicted from their land for the construction of the new Lombok International Airport, which opened this month, should not be repeated.

Yudhoyono said that while the private companies involved in the project needed to meet their commitment to develop the area, the local government also had to play its part.

The president also called on the BTDC to change its name to the Bali Lombok Tourism Development Corporation, to prevent any misunderstanding since the project was in Lombok.

West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) Governor Zainul Majdi said the Mandalika resort area was ideally located near a number of beautiful beaches.

The 1,175-hectare resort area began to be developed in the 1990s, with the building of a five-star hotel, the Novotel, but further development stalled.

Majdi said the developers needed to take care to involve locals in the project, and not to trample on local traditions. “The people of NTB are still the hosts in their own land,” he added.

The governor, accompanied by the president director of the BTDC, Ida Bagus Wirajaya, presented Yudhoyono with a blueprint for the development of the Mandalika resort area.

Hatta Rajasa, the coordinating minister for the economy, said the area was strategically located only 16 kilometers from the new international airport and just 40 kilometers from Mataram, the provincial capital.

“The location of the Mandalika resort area is very advantageous and strategic for development as a tourism resort, and I hope that this area can become a new national tourism icon,” the minister said.

Yudhoyono marked the ground breaking of the project by sounding a siren. Also present at the ceremony, besides Majdi and Hatta, were the first lady, Ani Yudhoyono, and the new tourism and creative economy minister, Marie Elka Pangestu.

At the same ceremony several other memorandums of understanding were signed.

They included agreements between the Central Lombok district chief and the management of the Wahanakarya Suplaindo tourism school, and the district chief, Yonasindo Intra Pratama and the management of the Bali state polytechnic nurse training college.