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Govt raises ship fares, opens bus route to Brunei
The government has increased ship fares for passengers and vehicles at 18 harbors by an average of 8
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The government has increased ship fares for passengers and vehicles at 18 harbors by an average of 8.64 percent beginning today due to skyrocketing fuel prices, and has introduced the country's first bus route to Brunei Darussalam.
Ferry fares between Ketapang on the eastern tip of Java and the west coast of Bali have been raised by 2.64 percent, and between Gorontalo in northern Sulawesi and Wakai in Central Sulawesi by 9.79 percent.
The highest fare increase is 13.32 percent for ferries between Siwa in South Sulawesi and Lasusua in Southeast Sulawesi.
Bambang S. Ervan, head of public communication at the Transportation Ministry, said Wednesday the increases were calculated according to the distances of the different routes.
He said the new fares were not only important to help shipping companies cope with rising operational costs, but also to maintain safety through the maintenance and upgrade of aging ships.
"Out of 214 ships operating in the 18 harbors, 143 are more than 20 years old and only 19 ships are less than 10 years old," he said.
The Transportation Ministry also announced plans to open the first bus route connecting Indonesia and Brunei Darussalam, via Malaysia, by the end of this month following a surge in demand from migrant workers traveling to the oil-producing country on Boreno Island.
Sugihardjo, head of road transportation at the ministry, said Wednesday the route would connect Pontianak in West Kalimantan and Bandar Seri Begawan in Brunei Darussalam, through Kuching and Miri in Malaysia's northern part of Borneo.
"We will open the route after we successfully implemented the Pontianak-Kuching route in the early 1990s," he said.
Sugihardjo said the new route would help passengers who frequently complained about expensive fares charged by unlicensed bus operations.
"We will run the new route because the number of passengers reaches between 200 and 250 per day," he said.
He said his office would appoint bus companies PT Damri and PT Setiajiwana Sakti to provide buses for the route.
"The buses will carry passengers from Pontianak to Bandar Seri Begawan twice a day," he said.
He said that Brunei Darussalam and Malaysia had not yet decided which companies they would appoint to supply buses for their legs of the route.
"Brunei will also carry passengers twice a day, while Malaysia will serve passengers once per day," he said.
Iskandar Abubakar, director general for Land Transportation, said the three countries would hold a final meeting to discuss the new route on July 17 and 18.
"I hope we can reach agreement on the route opening during this final meeting," he said.
He said his office was also planning to open bus routes connecting to two other neighboring countries -- Papua New Guinea and Timor Leste.
"We have been discussing this with the Papua New Guinea government since 2007 but we have not yet reached an agreement," he said. (ewd)
