ADB to help government in Aceh railway plan

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)