Container port for Surabaya

JAKARTA (JP): State-owned PT Pelabuhan Indonesia III and the privately-owned PT Citra Samudra Terminal Petikemas will build a container terminal at Surabaya's Tanjung Perak port in East Java.

The new container terminal will cost Rp 241.22 billion.

Under an agreement the two companies' signed yesterday, the container terminal will have a capacity of a million Twenty-feet Equivalent Units -- twice its present capacity.

"Construction started last December and the first phase will be ready in April 1998," Pelabuhan III's president, Herman Prayitno, said after signing the agreement.

The terminal will have 500-meter piers.

Citra Samudra will provide 60 percent of the money and Pelabuhan III 40 percent.

Citra Samudra is 45 percent owned by Samudra Indonesia Group and 55 percent by PT Citra Lamtorogung Persada.

The director-general of sea transportation, Soentoro, said Citra Samudra won the project after a three-year assessment.

He said the government had also invited private firms to develop other seaports including West Java's Ciwandan and the expansion of East Java's Gresik.

Other seaports and container terminals developed by private firms include West Java'a Bojanegara and Jakarta's Tanjung Priok. (icn)