Sunda Strait bridge unfeasible: Minister

JAKARTA (JP): A plan to build a bridge above the Sunda Strait connecting Java and Sumatra is not feasible, at least until 2018, Minister of Transportation Haryanto Dhanutirto said yesterday.

Haryanto told a hearing of the House of Representatives Commission V on transportation yesterday that according to an exposition delivered by the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT) last week, the project would cost a massive Rp 50 trillion (US$21.16 billion). The figure is nearly half of the proposed state budget for the 1997/1998 fiscal year.

"The project is only feasible when we have completed our second long-term development plan (in 2018). Let our grandchildren make it come true," Haryanto said.

Minister of Public Works Radinal Moochtar said last September his office had accepted a proposal on construction of the bridge from a group of investors led by Ari Sigit, a grandson of President Soeharto.

Radinal, however, said any discussion on the bridge was premature, because the government had given top priority to two other projects, the Surabaya-Madura bridge and the Java-Bali bridge.

The proposed bridge would be 26.9 kilometers long, each kilometer costing Rp 2 trillion. A middle section would lie on an isle in the Sunda Strait.

Haryanto instead suggested ferries plying the Merak port in West Java and Bakauheni in Lampung be employed more effectively. There are 16 ferries serving 29,000 people and 3,000 vehicles during the peak season.

The BPPT study said the bridge's surface would rise to 40 meters above sea level, with each of its posts soaring to 170 meters.

Radinal said recently the government would wait until next month for private investors to decide if they would go ahead with their plan to build a six-kilometer bridge worth $250 million linking Java and Madura island based on the operating concession from 25 years to 35 years.

The Ministry of Public Works has licensed Scotia Bali Bridge Co. -- a consortium of PT Mitra Trans Balongan Indonesia, Scotia International Associates and Brown Beach and Associates Ltd of Britain -- to construct a five-kilometer suspension bridge from Java to Bali. (amd)