Construction of new airport begins in North Sumatra

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Fri, 06/30/2006 4:20 PM

Rendi A. Witular and Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan

Vice President Jusuf Kalla officially inaugurated construction Thursday on a long-waited new international airport in North Sumatra's capital almost 14 years after it was first planned.

He sounded a siren and laid the first brick for the Kuala Namu International Airport in Beringin district, Deli Serdang regency, outside the provincial capital of Medan.

With its first phase construction capable of accommodating up to 10 million passengers annually, and 50 million later, the airport will be the country's second largest after the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Banten. Construction is slated for completion in 2009.

""The Kuala Namu airport will function as an international hub. With its location, which is north of Singapore, international airlines will prefer to use this airport for transit because it will be more efficient,"" Transportation Minister Hatta Radjasa said.

He reiterated that Kuala Namu would be the country's first airport linked by railway. Investment for the railway to Medan is estimated to reach Rp 200 billion (US$215 million).

State airport operator PT Angkasa Pura II and state railway operator PT KAI have inked a deal to form a joint-venture company to manage the railway.

State Minister for State Enterprises Sugiharto said investment for the first phase construction of Kuala Namu would reach Rp 1.2 trillion for the main facilities, and Rp 2.2 trillion for supporting facilities.

Angkasa Pura, which will operate the airport, will bear the cost of its construction, while the government will also seek soft loans from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the state budget.

The government is upbeat that with the sharp increase of passengers at the airport, the ADB loans could be paid off in full four years after the airport's operation.

Kalla said the construction of the airport would be completely handled by local companies, including for its design and architecture, for cost efficiency.

""We had fairly bad experiences during the construction of the Soekarno-Hatta Airport, which involved many foreign companies. The design of the airport has failed to accommodate local customs, such as the design of its toilets,"" he said.

The government is speeding up the construction of Kuala Namu to replace Medan's Polonia Airport, officially opened in 1928 and considered no longer safe for most types of modern wide-bodied aircraft. A number of plane crashes have occurred at the aging airport over the past three years, killing more than 400 people.

Investigators attributed the accidents to a series of problems, including its location on 144 hectares squeezed between two rivers and surrounded by residential areas.

The airport, which is located in the center of Medan, is capable of handling about 900,000 passengers annually, although the number increased to 4.5 million last year, with services suffering as a result of the overload.

""Aside from the bad service, the local administration has also complained that the location of the airport has prevented them from issuing licenses for investors to construct high-rise buildings due to the fear the aircraft could crash into them,"" said Hatta.

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