GOVERNMENT TO BUILD US400 MILLION KUALA TANJUNG PORT

Jakarta, Jan 20 (Antara) - The government said construction of the Kuala Tanjung port in North Sumatra to cost around US$400 million would start soon and to be completed in 2018. Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs Indroyono Soesilo received a report at a meeting with PT Pelindo I President Director Bambang Cahyana and Port of Rotterdam Director Roger Clasquin here on Tuesday that construction of the project will start soon. Construction of the project will be handled by the state owned port operator PT Pelindo I in cooperation with the Port of Rotterdam of the Netherlands. The port project is part of the sea toll road project of the government to modernize and facilitate sea transport between the western and eastern parts of the country. Construction of the Kuala Tanjung port is an implementation of the sea toll road concept of the government to improve connectivity between the country's islands and national logistic system, Indroyono said. "The cores of the sea toll road concept are deep sea ports of Kuala Tanjung (Medan), Tanjung Priok (Jakarta), Tanjung Perak (Surabaya), Makassar of South Sulawesi and Sorong of West Papua. They are to be built or modernized almost at the same time," he said. The Kuala Tanjung port would take part of the burden of the Belawan port and it is to be integrated with the Sei Mengke Industrial Estate now under construction in North Sumatra. The Sei Mengke Industrial Estate is designed to be an industrial center producing palm oil products such as oleochemicals. The Kuala Tanjung port will facilitate transport or export of palm oil products from Sei Mengke. A toll road would be built to link Sei Mengke with the ports of Kuala Tanjung and Belawan via Medan, the minister said. A new power plant will also be built in Asahan to cope with shortage in power supply in that province, he said. Meanwhile, Sorong will be determined as a special economic area complete with port facility, shipyard, and power plant to be integrated with an industrial estate and marine tourism center in Raja Ampat, he said. (T.SYS/B/A. Saragih/F. Assegaf)