Sunda Strait bridge unfeasible: Minister

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)