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JAKARTA (TheInsiderStories) - Indonesian Transportation Minister Ignasius Jonan said his ministry is finalizing the tenders of 78 projects in transportation sector which are expected to be completed by year-end and followed by construction in early 2016. The government will spend up to Rp40 trillion ($2.92 billion) for the projects.
President Joko Widodo administrations is targeting to build 150 airports across Indonesia, 100 airports that can accommodate super body jets such as 737-800, A320 and A900 and 50 airports that can serve ATR 72 and Hercules aircraft. Currently, the country owns 237 airports across the archipelago.
The ministry is also targeting to build toll roads with total length of 3,000 kilometers (KM), consisting of toll road sections of Trans Sumatera, Trans Kalimantan, Trans Sulawesi and Trans Papua. As for railway project, the government aims to develop railways from Aceh to Lampung with a total length of 2,500 kilometers to built state owned railway operator PT Kereta Api Indonesia.
Minister Ignasius Jonan said said the railway projects will trigger a demand for 450 locomotives and 30,000 wagons.
Deputy minister for Public Works Hermanto Dardak added that the government also plans to develop 2,650 kilometers long of roads, 24 ports, 60 harbor crossing, 15 special economic zones (SEzs), 25 tourism areas, 65 dams, 1 million irrigation, and for protection of coastal erosion 500 KM until 2019.
“These projects will require investments of Rp5,500 trillion. The government will fund 50 percent of the projects together with local governments and others will be funded by state own enterprises and privately owned companies,” he said.
At present, Indonesia operates 237 airports, excluding 15 pioneer airports located in border and remote areas and disaster-prone zones. Of these, state-owned airport operator PT Angkasa Pura I operates 13 airports, Angkasa Pura II operates 13 airports, one independent port operator in Batam, 30 airports managed by local governments and 185 pioneer airports are operated by the Transportation Ministry.
Currently, almost 60 airports can accommodate jet aircraft. The government targets to increase the number of airports that can serve jet aircrafts to 100 by 2019 and 50 airports by Hercules and ATR 72 aircraft.
The minister said the procurement of public facilities such as bus, vessels, trains and aircraft are determined by market mechanism. The capacity of trains has increased to around 1 million passengers per day, compared to only 500,000 per day years ago. The demand for this transportation mode keeps increasing.
The government plans to build railway network in Sulawesi (Trans Sulawesi) that can be furthered develop for high speed train of up to 300 km/hour.
Hermanto Dardak of Public Works Ministry added that his office will build 65 dams next year, irrigations, 2,650 kilometers long of road, 1,000 km of toll roads and 500 km of concrete blocks to prevent coastal erosion by 2019.
The government plans to speed up the tender process of those projects so that they can be constructed as early as possible. (*)