"The government has asked that the railways groundbreaking be accelerated and brought forward to the second semester of 2016," the Director General of Railways at the Ministry of Transportation, Prasetyo Boeditjahjono said here on Tuesday.
Land acquisition has become the main constraint in the project, said Prasetyo.
"We need at least four kilometers of land from Sorong to Manokwari," Prasetyo revealed.
He added that the railway infrastructure investment value across Sorong-Manokwari will be Rp 8 trillion, not including land acquisition costs.
According to data from the Directorate General of Railways of the Ministry of Transportation, the Trans-Papua railway plan, consists of Sorong-Manokwari (390 kilometers), Manokwari-Nabire (308 kilometers), Nabire-Timika (272 kilometers), Nabire-Sarmi (375 kilometers), and Sarmi-Jayapura (205 kilometers), which a 1,550 kilometers long.
The Trans Papua railway development program includes the development of a new railway network in Papua and West Papua.
The financing details of these railways include Sorong-Manokwari, valued at Rp26,70 trillion, Rp14,42 trillion for Sarmi-Jayapura, Manokwari-Nabire valued at Rp23,67 trillion, Rp26,35 trillion for Nabire-Sarmi, the Nabire-Timika portion valued at Rp19,83 trillion, with the total pegged at Rp108,3 trillion.
Meanwhile, the first railway priority is to build the Sorong-Manokwari track, which is scheduled to begin in late 2017 and will be completed in 2024, then Sarmi-Jayapura in early 2018, Manokwari-Nabire in as early as 2020, the Nabire-Sarmi stretch to be completed by the end of 2020 and Nabire-Timika by the end 2020.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2016
