We would provide a larger Roro with a carrying capacity of 200 vehicles."West Lombok (ANTARA News) - Transport Minister Budi Karya Sumadi has asked state-owned port operation PT Pelabuhan Indonesia (Pelindo) III to speed up completion of the Gilimas port project in the regency of West Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara.
Completion and operation of the Gilimas port project would cope with transport problem between Bali and Lombok, the Minister said here on Saturday (April 1st).
"I want the quay for tourist boats operational in mid 2018 to be followed with quay for container ship in May, 2019. Originally it was to be completed in 2020," he said when inspecting progress in the construciton of the Gilimas port project in the sub-district of Lembar, regency of West Lombok.
He said currently ferrying between Bali and Lombok is only via the port of Lembar which has been over crowded.
The Lembar port is too small and could be used only by a ship with a carrying capacity of not more than 40 vehicles, he said.
"With the operation of the Gilimas port, car travelers crossing to Bali from Surabaya could continue to Lombok using larger roll-on-roll (Roro) vessels," he said.
"Now the roll-on-roll vessel via Lembar have only a carrying capacity of 40 vehicles. We would provide a larger Roro with a carrying capacity of 200 vehicles," he said.
The new port would also contribute greatly to development of NTB tourism and would facilitate the Mandalika special economic zone (KEK) in the regency of Central Lombok, he said.
Lombok is one of priority tourist destination areas to be developed by the Borobudur Temple in Central Java.
The port of Gilimas will serve not only for the transport of passengers and containers cargoes but it will also serve tourist boats from various countries in the world.
"With the operation of the Gilimas port we would provide landing place for roro vessels and cruisers and facilitate logistics," the minister said.
He said he would help accelerate work to build the port project by helping in the issuance of the necessity licenses such as the reclamation permit.
"The analysis on environmental impact is already finished. The reclamation permit would be issued soon. I would sign it on Monday," he promised.
The Gilimas port would have a capacity of handling 300,000 TEUS of container cargoes. In 2016, the port handled loading and unloading of 36,000 TEUS of container cargoes and served 38,000 passengers.
Construction of the container and cruiser terminal is estimated to cost Rp1.3 trillion . The project will need 60 hectares of land to be cleared. Currently land clearing has reached 50 hectares.
Development of the project has been delayed as permit has not been forthcoming for reclamation needed by the port project.
Commercial and Operational Director of Pelindo III Mohammad Iqbal said the reclamation permit has been processed since December, 2016.
The reclamation permit is needed to process the port construction permit, Iqbal said.
(Uu.H-ASG/H-YH)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
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