Bakauheni-Merak route to get new ferry service

Bakauheni-Merak route to get new ferry service

JAKARTA (JP): Director General for Land Transportation Santo
Budiono has indicated that he would directly appoint a company to
operate a ferry between Merak, West Java, and Bakauheuni on the
southern tip of Sumatra.

"Direct procurement (without tender) is necessary to speed up
delivery so that the ferry can start operating during Lebaran
(Idul Fitri) this year," Santo said yesterday.

"President Soeharto has agreed to allocate funds to purchase
the ship," Santo told reporters in Bandung.

Santo said that no private company had offered to sell the
government ferries but reiterated the urgency for more ferries to
connect southern Sumatra and West Java.

Bus and truck companies have of late complained about long
queues at Merak port because of too few ferry services to
Bakauheuni.

Minister of Transportation Haryanto Dhanutirto had announced
earlier a plan to assign the Utari ferry, which had been shipping
cars from Jakarta to Surabaya, to the Bakauheuni-Merak ferry
route.

Haryanto said the Utari had been losing money because
businesspeople preferred to transport cars between the two cities
by land.

He said that a ferry, like the Utari, was badly needed for
the Bakauheuni-Merak route.

In a related development, Director of PT Marina Bandar Lampung
Yongky told Antara yesterday of a promising business opportunity
for a ferry service between Merak and Bandar Lampung, another
passenger terminal in southern Sumatra.

PT Marina has been servicing Bandar Lampung and Merak with a
super-jet ferry which can carry 160 passengers and cruise at 30
knots an hour.

He said his company planned to operate two super-jet ferries
on the Bandar Lampung-Merak route to reduce the traffic burdening
the Bakauheuni-Merak route.

"I welcome others to invest in our service," Yongky said. (09)