Brunei wants direct bus link

PURWOKERTO, Central Java: Brunei Darussalam has asked that a bus service be opened between there and Indonesia to serve an increasing number of travelers between the two countries, an official said here Saturday.

The director of operations at state-run bus company DAMRI, Sodin Syafrudin, said the company had been requested to prepare a bus fleet to link Brunei Darussalam and Indonesia.

"The government of Brunei Darussalam has asked us to provide a bus fleet to connect the two countries but its implementation is subject to approval by the Malaysia-Indonesia Socioeconomic Committee," he told Antara.

He said any such bus service would have to pass through the Malaysian part of Borneo and then into Indonesia.

He said the only bus service in the vicinity at present was from Pontianak in West Kalimantan to Kuching in Malaysia.

Syafrudin said this route would possibly be exploited and extended to reach Brunei.

If approved by the Malaysia-Indonesia Socioeconomic Committee, he said DAMRI would provide five passenger buses and another five cargo buses while Brunei would provide the same number for the service.

DAMRI has operated five buses on the route between Pontianak and Kuching for the past three years, he said.