RI gets $260m from World Bank

JAKARTA (JP): The World Bank has approved loans totaling US$260 million to finance infrastructure projects in Sulawesi and improve railway networks in Java.

The bank stated that $155 million of the loan would finance the Second Sulawesi Urban Development project and the remaining $105 million would be allocated to the Railway Efficiency project.

The Sulawesi project, with a total cost of $272 million, would receive the remaining $117 million from various levels of the government.

The bank said the railway project's cost is estimated at $207.3 million, 51 percent of which will be financed by its $105 million loans. Australia would provide around $56 million in loans for the project with the Indonesian government contributing the remainder.

According to the bank's statement, the Sulawesi project would continue policies of improved infrastructure planning and programming, strengthen local government management capacity and enhance community participation.

The loan would also assist Sulawesi's urban services and related environmental management and maintenance activities in the face of an annual population growth of 5 percent in its urban areas.

The loan for the country's railway efficiency project would upgrade service quality through policy reform to restructure the railway enterprise into a state-owned limited liability company, the bank stated.

The restructure would comprise of management strengthening, government compensation for the railway's public service obligations and maintenance and operational costs and implementation of an expanded private participation strategy.

The project is also designed to improve the important railway corridor between Jakarta and Bandung by increasing its capacity and shortening journey times.

The project would also implement a modern track maintenance system and diesel electric locomotive exchange maintenance system in Java, in which all of these measures are important to meet the annual transport growth rate of 7 percent. (01)