Consortium to build $594.13m toll road
Consortium to build $594.13m toll road
JAKARTA (JP): An Indonesian-British consortium, led by
President Soeharto's eldest daughter Siti Hardiyanti Rukmana,
yesterday won a contract from the government to construct a 59-
kilometer toll road with an investment of Rp 1.29 trillion
(US$594.13 million).
"The deal is very important for us because it is the first
time for a foreign investor to be involved in the toll road
project in the country," Minister of Public Works Radinal
Moochtar said at the ceremony for the signing of the agreement
between the consortium and PT Jasa Marga, the state-owned company
assigned to manage toll roads in the country.
The consortium, called PT Citra Ganesha Marga Nusantara, is 30
percent owned by PT Citra Lamtoro Gung Persada, 30 percent by
Jasa Marga and 40 percent by Trafalgar House of Britain.
Yesterday's agreement on the toll road project, which will
link Cikampek and Padalarang, both in West Java, was signed by
the consortium's chief commissioner, Hardiyanti, and its
president, Michael Slater, on one side and by the president of
Jasa Marga, Maryadi Dharmokumoro, representing the government.
Visiting British Minister of Trade Richard Needham, who also
witnessed the signing of the deal, called the project the biggest
civil work to involve a British company.
Moochtar said that the deal allows the consortium to operate
the Cikampek-Padalarang toll road for 27 years.
"After a period of the 27-year concession, we expect that the
consortium will transfer the toll road management to the
government," he told The Jakarta Post.
He said that the project's construction, scheduled to start by
the middle of next year, will be implemented in two stages.
"The first stage will include the construction of the
highway's segment between Cikampek and Purwakarta, while the
second phase will link Purwakarta and Padalarang," he said.
He expects that the Cikampek-Purwakarta segment will be
completed by March 1997 and the Purwakarta-Padalarang section by
March 1999.
Dharmokumoro meanwhile announced after the ceremony that in
addition to the 59-kilometer toll road, the consortium will also
construct 7.2 kilometers of outlet roads along the highway as
well as four intersections over it.
Slater, who is also deputy managing director of Trafalgar
House, told the Post that the consortium was established last
December with authorized capital of $88.5 million.
He declined to specify its paid-up capital.
Investment
According to Slater, the British government since 1988 has
offered a concessional grant worth $28 million to help the
Indonesian government purchase a stake in the toll road project.
"For financing the planned toll road, we are hoping for more
export credits from the U.K. government and we are looking for
other investors to join our project," he said.
Trafalgar's equity in the consortium will then be reduced
because the company will offer some of its stake to other
investors interested in the project.
Paula Ayus, the consortium's vice president, told reporters
that the consortium has received preliminary commitments from
various foreign banks to help finance the project.
A British embassy report said yesterday that the British
government has provided a series of concessional loans worth $550
million since 1986 to Indonesia for the development of various
projects, such as power generation and transmission, forestry
radios, educational equipment and rail networks.
An informed source said that Hardiyanti, popularly known as
Mbak Tutut, has had the good fortune to clinch another toll road
deal worth some $400 million in the Philippines.(fhp)