French firms to help expand airport in Ujungpandang
French firms to help expand airport in Ujungpandang
JAKARTA (JP): French companies will carry out the feasibility
study and the construction of the expansion of the Hasanuddin
Airport in Ujungpandang, South Sulawesi, according to Minister of
Transportation Haryanto Dhanutirto.
"Suvre Avia will conduct the feasibility study, while the
company which will do the construction will be selected through
an open tender," Haryanto told reporters here on Saturday.
He said that the expansion of the Hasanuddin airport will be
financially assisted by the French government, which requires
that French companies be given opportunities to conduct both the
feasibility study and the construction of the project.
Haryanto refused to give further details about how much French
loans would total and when the Indonesian government would open
bidding.
The government is inviting local and foreign firms to build
and expand several airports in the country under building,
operating and transfer (BOT) contracts.
The projects, which consist of the construction of two new
airports and the expansion of four existing ones, will likely
cost around US$1.46 billion.
New airports will be built in Medan, the capital of North
Sumatra, and in Central Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara. The existing
airports to be expanded will include the Juanda airport in
Surabaya, East Java, the Adi Sumarmo airport in Solo, Central
Java, the Hasanuddin airport in Ujungpandang, South Sulawesi, and
the Sam Ratulangi airport in Manado, North Sulawesi.
Medan
The planned airport in North Sumatra will be built in
Kualanamu of Deli Serdang, near the province's capital of Medan,
replacing the aging Polonia airport.
The construction of the new airport in Medan, which will have
two runways of around 4,000 meters in length each, will cost at
least $600 million. The government recently picked PT Citra
Lamtorogung Persada, a company owned by President Soeharto's
eldest daughter Siti Hardiyanti Rukmana, to construct the new
airport within three years. The company, in cooperation with
Schiphol Airport of the Netherlands, will start constructing it
in the middle of next year.
Haryanto declined yesterday to confirm whether or not a
Singapore-based company will construct the new airport in Central
Lombok which is expected to cost $169.37 million. Local and
foreign companies will be involved in the construction and the
operation of the airport under a BOT contract.
The expansion will enable airports in Ujungpandang, Solo,
Manado and Surabaya to accommodate large aircraft like Boeing
747-400 planes. The expansion of the airports will be based on
BOT contracts but he said that the arrangements should be jointly
set with the state-owned airport management firm Perum Angkasa
Pura.(icn)