Two more Pelni ships constructed

Two more Pelni ships constructed

JAKARTA (JP): Jos L. Meyer-Papenburg of Germany won a contract yesterday from the government to construct two passenger ships for the state-owned shipping company PT Pelayaran Indonesia (Pelni).

Under the agreement, which was signed here yesterday by Director General of Sea Transportation Soentoro and Meyer- Papenburg's president, Wilfried Spoehring, the construction of the vessels will be financed with export credits from the Kreditanstalt fur Wiederaufbau (KFW) of Germany.

Minister of Transportation Haryanto Dhanutirto, who witnessed the signing with the German embassy's Deputy Head of Mission, Albrecht von der Heyden, said that the two ocean liners will be the 17th and 18th vessels to be operated by Pelni.

Pelni currently operates seven 2,000-passenger ships and eight 1,000-passenger ships. Its 16th vessel, a 1,000-passenger vessel named Tinongkabila, is now being constructed by Meyer-Papenburg and will be delivered in June.

According to Spoehring, the construction of the 17th cruiser will be completed by October next year and the 18th by October 1997. Each of the two vessels will have a capacity of 2,000 seats.

"Each of the last two vessels will cost DM 147 million (about US$88 million)," he said.

Haryanto said that Pelni, which links 72 seaports in 24 of the country's 27 provinces, transported some 23.5 million passengers last year.

He said the last two vessels will increase the total seat capacity of Pelni's fleet to 24,160.

The minister said the government expects that the number of ships within Pelni's fleet will increase to 28 by the year 2000, made up of nine 2,000-passenger vessels, nine 1,000-passenger liners and 10 500-passenger ships.(icn)