New airport project in Medan continues
JAKARTA (JP): The project to construct a new airport in Medan, North Sumatra is continuing, and the clearance of about 1,350 hectares of land for the construction has been completed.
Spokesman for the Ministry of Transportation, Bambang S. Ervan, said here yesterday that the master plan for the new airport, located in Kuala Namu, Deli Serdang, some 20 km from Medan, was scheduled to be completed by the end of this month.
"The physical construction of the airport will be carried out gradually starting in early 1998," Ervan told The Jakarta Post here yesterday.
He said that state-owned airport management company PT Angkasa Pura would finance the 1,365 hectare land appropriation.
The company had spent some Rp 140.9 billion (approximately US$36 million) to clear 1,350 hectares on the plot, he added.
"The most recent land appropriation consisted of 655.83 hectares previously owned by the state-owned PT Perkebunan Nusantara II," he said.
Ervan said that Minister/State Secretary Moerdiono recently announced that President Soeharto had called on the continuation of the Kuala Namu Airport project following Garuda's Airbus A300- B4 plane crash that killed 234 people in North Sumatra on Sep. 26.
The Kuala Namu project, which has been planned to replace the aging Polonia airport, was earlier postponed by the government based on a Presidential Decree dated Sept. 20.
The Kuala Namu project, initially announced in 1994 as a joint operation with private and overseas firms, is estimated to incorporate approximately 2,200 hectares of land.
Angkasa Pura, with its financial facilitators, will finance part of the project related to aviation affairs. The land-related project has been offered to private firms in collaboration with Angkasa Pura under a building, operating and transfer (BOT) contract.
Two years ago the government picked PT Citra Lamtorogung Persada, a company owned by President Soeharto's eldest daughter Siti Hardiyanti Rukmana, to construct the Kuala Namu Airport within three years. The government said at that time that the company would cooperate with Schiphol Airport in the Netherlands for the project. The new airport in Medan, planned with two runways of around 4,000 meters each, was then estimated to cost at least $600 million.
Ervan said yesterday that the government is still looking for other companies to join Citra Lamtorogung in developing the airport project.
Reassessment
He continued that a team was currently reassessing some air transportation projects throughout the country, which are now being reviewed as part of the government's retrenchment program.
The projects included the procurement and installation of airport security equipment for 50 airports; airfield lighting systems and power supplies; and VHF extended range for communication systems and ATC radar facilities.
"We expect to have the result (of the reassessment) later this year," Ervan said.
An aviation expert and executive has recently urged the government to improve the country's airports.
"Many airports in Indonesia have poor infrastructure and lack adequate facilities, possibly putting passengers and planes in peril," he said.
Indonesia currently operates 70 airports, 23 of which are international gateways, including those in Jakarta, Surabaya, Bali, Batam, Manado and Medan.
The A300-B4 airplane of the national carrier Garuda crashed in a smog-shrouded ravine 45 kilometers (27 miles) south of Medan's Polonia Airport. Poor visibility due to haze in the area as well as a misunderstanding between air traffic control and the pilot of flight GA-152 are being investigated as possible causes of the worst disaster in Indonesia's aviation history.
Ervan said that there had been at least 3,372 flights canceled in airports in Sumatra and Kalimantan during August and September.
He said that there were 959 canceled flights in Pontianak in West Kalimantan, 568 in Samarinda in East Kalimantan and 358 in Padang, West Sumatra. (icn)