"The expansion and construction of other infrastructure facilities at Soekarno-Hatta Airport should draw serious attention from the relevant parties," vice presidential spokesman Yopie Hidayat quoted Boediono as saying during a meeting at the vice presidential palace here on Tuesday.
Boediono led the meeting which specially discussed Soekarno-Hatta Airport. Also present were Public Works Minister Djoko Kirmanto, Vice Finance Minister Anny Ratnawati, and a number of representatives from state airport operator PT Angkasa Pura II, state railway company PT Kereta Api and the Banten provincial government.
The relevant parties are the Public Works Ministry, the Transportation Ministry, the Finance Ministry, PT Angkasa Pura II, PT Kereta Api and the Banten provincial government.
Yopie quoted the vice president as saying the airport`s two runways now had a combined capacity of 22 million passengers per year, while last year the airport served around 44.2 million passengers.
"At the meeting Vice President Boediono said the expansion of Soekarno-Hatta Airport must top the list of the government`s priorities. The longer the expansion is delayed the more difficult it will be," Yopie said.
For its part, he said the vice president agreed on PT Angkasa Pura II`s proposal to make a grand design to optimize and revitalize the existing runways and terminals. The first phase of the project was expected to be completed in 2014.
The project was aimed at enabling the airport to serve up to 62 million passengers per year, he said.
Therefore, the capacity of aprons must be increased to accommodate up to 174 planes from 125 planes previously and the runways and taxiways must be reconfigured without having to build a new runway, he said.
He said the projects also included expansion of terminals 3 and 2 and construction of a new cargo terminal. All these projects were scheduled for completion in 2013.
The other projects would be revitalization of information technology and construction of an integrated terminal, he said.
"All the projects will cost an estimated Rp11.75 trillion. The fund will come from Angkasa Pura II, investors and loans from domestic banks," he said.(*)
(S012/HAJM/a014)
Editor: Ruslan Burhani
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
