"Right now the Russian businessman is still approaching the central government by way of the relevant ministry, and on October 4 they will be returning to Russia and then to Central Kalimantan and then return to East Kalimantan," head of the E Kalimantan capital investment agency M Yadi Sabiyanoor said in Samarinda on Monday.
Yadi said the Russian entrepreneur called Andrey Shigaev was very serious in building the rail road track in East Kalimantan, and expressing his seriousness Andrey who is the Kalimantan Rail Director had recently met the East Kalimantan Governor and some of the relevant agency heads.
Right now Andrey is presenting some programs and investment plans which would need some 2,000 hectares of land for 285 kilometers of rail road track.
The rail road track will be built from Balikpapan passing Kutai Kartanegara and Kutai Barat regency and through Central Kalimantan passing Murung Raya and Barito Utara.
The rail road track built by Kalimantan Rail in the short term will be used to transport coal and agricultural products in East Kalimantan, and in the long term will be used to transport people, goods and services.
East Kalimantan will enjoy a multiflier effect from building the rail road track, because Kalimantan Rail also planned to build a sea port coal terminal and coal power plant.
The realization of the development, which most likely will touch the environment, every infrastruktur that will be built will have an Environmental Impact Management Analysis (Amdal) to avoid environmental damage.
"Kalimantan Rail gave the highest appreciation to the positive response from the Governor when they met each other recently. The investor also immediately prepared the necessary follow up measures to make sure that the plan would run properly," he said.
Despite the positive response from the governor, Andrey Shigaev is still waiting for a response from the Central Kalimantan governor because their investment plans are very based on coal business calculations from the mining productions of Central Kalimantan.
According to the calculations of Kalimantan Rail, East Kalimantan`s potential is only 25 persen, and the rest comes from Central Kalimnantan. Therefore they need to have the approval from the Central Kalimantan provincial administration.
Whereas the proposasl for building the rail road in East Kalimantan not passing through Central Kalimantan would be difficult because it would change all the investment plan calculations, but is also not impossible, but still in need of considerations. (*)
Editor: Kunto Wibisono
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
