Minister Supports Development Of Bengkulu Seaport

Bengkulu, May 5 (Antara) - State-owned Enterprise (SOE) Minister Dahlan Iskan said he supported the development of Bengkulu seaport in efforts to generate economic activities in the province. "Bengkulu seaport has the potential to contribute revenues from the transportation sector to the regional and central governments," the minister said here Sunday. The capacity of Bengkulu`s Pulau Baai seaport should continue to be increased, including the development of its services and the seabed into its piers. After all, sea sand sedimentation in its seabed every month is high and causes the silting-up of the sea lane to the piers. This needs routine maintenance and dredging the lane`s seabed. "I am impressed with the potential of Bengkulu`s seaport so that its supporting facilities need to be developed," the minister said. Manager of port operator PT Pelindo II for Benkulu, Nurhikmat said that the condition of the port continued to be improved and at the end of the year, the depth of the port`s lanes would have reached 14 meters. "If this depth is already achieved, large scale ships with a deadweight tonnage of over 60 thousand tons will already be able to pass the lanes and berth at the piers," he said. He said that at present, the loading of ships with coal using conveyors only reached half of the ships` capacity. Thus, ships are loaded with full capacity outside the port`s basin. Since 2010, the number of ships calling at the port increased by 34 percent but they could only be loaded half of their capacity at the port, and the other half were done outside the port`s basin. The flow of cargo also increased from 2.3 million tons in 2010 to 2.6 million tons in 2011. "It increased to 4.5 million tons in 2012, contributing an income of Rp100 billion to PT Pelindo II," he said.