ADB to help government in Aceh railway plan

JAKARTA (JP): The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will assist the government in conducting a feasibility study for the development of a 486-kilometer railway line in Aceh, a senior government official said on Tuesday.

Bambang Bintoro, a deputy for infrastructure development at the National Development Planning Board (Bappenas), said the study was needed to prevent the recurrence of blunders from developing megaprojects in the past, including the notorious Kalimantan peatland project.

"The feasibility study is essential because we don't want to repeat the same mistakes again," he told members of House of Representatives' Commission VIII on the state budget and finance during a hearing.

The Rp 3.5 trillion (US$538.46 million) railway project was promised by President B.J. Habibie, who is a German-trained aeronautical engineer, during a recent visit to the troubled province.

The promise is an apparent bid to appease demands from the Acehnese for serious investigations into reported rampant human rights abuses during the 32-year presidency of Soeharto.

Bambang said the government had started the railway project, connecting the provincial capital of Banda Aceh and Langsa town in East Aceh, with initial investment of Rp 27 billion.

About 20 km of the line have been developed with financing from the state budget, but he said the complete structure of the project would not be available until completion of the feasibility study.

He declined to identify the contractors.

Aceh has been plagued by increasing social and political tension due to renewed separatist activity, including arson and shootings in several parts of the oil-rich province.

The government has sent in more riot troops in a bid to quell the separatist movement.

Bambang declined to comment on whether the project might be delayed due to the unrest, saying it would be better to wait until the feasibility study was completed.

The government has often been criticized for spending lavishly on megaprojects without conducting proper feasibility studies.

One example was the ambitious one-million hectare peatland conversion scheme in Central Kalimantan which was launched by Soeharto in early 1997.

Habibie stopped the project last month and ordered his ministers to help resettle the 61,000 transmigrants.

The project involved converting one million hectares of land into 638,000 hectares of rice fields. The remaining 362,000 hectares were to be used for horticulture, plantations, conservation areas, housing and reservoirs. The government spent about Rp 2 trillion on the project before it was abandoned.

A government investigation found last year that the peatland project destroyed 1.4 million hectares of forest, caused forest fires, polluted rivers and threatened the habitat of orangutans and proboscis monkeys.

"We don't want the (Aceh) railway project to repeat these kinds of mistakes," Bambang said.

He added that the government spent a considerable amount on cleaning up the environmental damage caused by the peatland project.

However, he was unable to disclose the exact amount because it is still being calculated.(rei)