JAKARTA: State coal producer PT Bukit Asam (PTBA), through its subsidiary PT Bukit Asam Transpacific Railway (BATR), has signed contracts worth US$4.8 billion in total with China Railway Group on the constructing and maintaining of a 307-kilometer railway in southern Sumatra.
PTBA corporate secretary Achmad Sudarto said in a media statement Thursday that the engineering, procurement and construction contract was worth $1.3 billion during four years while the operator and maintenance contract was for $3.5 billion covering 20 years.
BATR is a joint venture between PTBA (10 percent), China Railway Engineering Corporation (10 percent) and PT Transpacific Railway Infrastructure (80 percent). PT Transpacific Railway Infrastructure is owned by Indonesian tycoon Prajogo Pangestu.
Achmad said the project would be financed partly by PTBA's own equity at 30 percent. The remaining 70 percent would be financed by loans with four Chinese lenders expressing their interests to finance the project.
The project is targeted to have a capacity of 27 million tons of coal per year, expected to be operational by 2014, giving PTBA a guaranteed capacity of 25 million tons annually.
The railway would transport coal from PTBA's mine in Banko Tengah, South Sumatra, to Srengsem in neighboring Lampung province. - JP
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