Airport, railway projects to be put out to tender
Rendi A. Witular, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
As a follow-up to January's Infrastructure Summit, the government is slated to open biddings for two airport and one railway projects worth some Rp 4.24 trillion (US$4.48 billion) in June.
The projects are the construction of a new airport in Medan, North Sumatra, and another one in Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara, and a railway project connecting Manggarai Railway Station in South Jakarta and Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, west of Jakarta.
"The projects should have been offered to investors last month. Due to administrative problems, we decided to postpone the bidding process until next month," Minister of Transportation Hatta Radjasa told The Jakarta Post recently.
The projects are among the government's top priorities for upgrading the country's woefully inadequate transportation infrastructure. During the two-day summit on Jan. 17 and Jan. 18, the government offered 91 infrastructure projects worth US$22.5 billion to domestic and overseas investors.
Based on the government's list of offered projects, the $138.9 million new international airport on Lombok island will have the capacity to accommodate up to six million passengers in 2025.
The airport, which will be built on a 553-hectare plot of land near Praya town, is aimed at making Lombok the country's primary tourism destination after the adjacent Bali island.
Once the airport is operational, foreign tourists can fly directly from their respective countries to Lombok without having to transit in Denpasar, Jakarta or Surabaya. Currently, Lombok's Selaparang Airport can serve F100 and Boeing 737 A500 airplanes and accommodate less than 500,000 passengers.
The old airport cannot be expanded as its is surrounded by hills and rivers.
Medan will also have a new airport worth Rp 2.3 trillion to replace the existing Polonia Airport.
The new airport will be built on the outskirts of the country's third largest city, with the government already decided not to upgrade Polonia because it is located in the heart of Medan.
The government will also put a 10.5-kilometer railway line from Manggarai to Soekarno-Hatta Airport on offer.
The railway project, which is estimated to cost Rp 696 billion, is aimed at reducing traffic along the toll road connecting the airport and the inner-city toll road and on main roads.
Hatta also said that his ministry had decided to postpone the tender for the first phase of the Jakarta New Port project, a car terminal for automotive export and import activities.
The minister said the prolonged dispute between state port operator PT Pelabuhan Indonesia (Pelindo) II and the Jakarta administration over the project, also known as the East Ancol Seaport project, was the main reason behind the postponement.
Both parties argue that each side has the authority to manage the Rp 4.4 trillion new port. The city bases its argument on Law No. 34/1999 on the Jakarta administration, pointing out that the city has a strong legal basis for the development and management of its own ports.
Pelindo II, however, bases its argument on Government Regulation No. 69/2001 on national ports that stipulates that only the state port operator has the authority to build new national and international seaports.
"Both Pelindo and Jakarta administration are still in disagreement over their share composition in the projects," Hatta said.