City wants to buy dredging ships

Wed, 11/04/2009 2:22 PM  |  City

JAKARTA: The city administration plans to buy river-dredging ships and will propose it in the 2010 city budget, an official says.

Currently, the city only has two dredging ships, which were donated by the Dutch government in November 2008.

"It will be ideal if every municipality has two dredging ships," Deputy Governor Prijanto said on Tuesday.

Budi Widiantoro said one small dredging ship would cost Rp 2 billion (US$208,333), while a medium ship would cost Rp 2.5 billion.

In a bid to face the annual flood that hits the city during the rainy season, the public works agency is dredging 64 sections of the sub-micro rivers, - targeting to clear 1.5 million cubic meters of silt.

Meanwhile, city council speaker Ferrial Sofyan said the city should explain whether the dredging ships would be used for 13 main rivers in the city.

"The 13 rivers are the responsibility of the central government. If the dredging ships are needed for those rivers, we cannot use the city budget," he said. - JP

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