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orth Sumatra residents declared a “One Thousand Rupiah Movement” Tuesday to help accelerate the long-delayed construction of Kuala Namu airport in Deli Serdang regency.

The Development Institute group, which issued the declaration, said it was collecting donations from people in Medan.

The group, comprised mostly of university students, collected Rp 500,000 (US$56) to be donated to finance the airport’s development, which is expected to cost Rp 6 trillion to complete and has been on hold for 11 years.

“This is our way of expressing concern over the central government’s sluggish pace in finishing the Kuala Namu airport,” Development Institute executive director Aulia Rahman said, adding that the group planned to continue their rally for a month.

The collected funds will be handed over to the central government at a peace rally attended by delegates from the Transportation Ministry, the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas), Regional Representatives Board (DPD) and the House of Representatives, Aulia said.

“We expect the central government will grant us special attention to speed the airport’s development, which in turn will also facilitate economic development in the province,” Aulia said.

Compared to the development of airports in regions such as Padang, West Sumatra; Palembang in South Sumatra; and Makassar in South Sulawesi, Kuala Namu’s construction progress had been moving at a snail’s pace. The plan has been in place since 1999, yet no signs of progress have been made, Aulia said.

“We are fed up with the central government’s promises not followed by realized implementation,”
he added.

This year the central government has called for another postponement, pushing development of the airport to 2012, saying construction of a 3,760 meter runway would need 400 days to complete.

“I’m not sure if the central government will be able to meet the 2012 objective because there still are primary infrastructure necessities that must be put in place first, and then there are problematic issues involving [land] compensation.”

The provincial administration has repeatedly asked the central government to commit to finishing the Kuala Namu airport, which is intended to replace the Polonia airport in Medan, Governor Syamsul Arifin said.

“We asked last week during a working meeting with Yudhoyono in Bogor, West Java,” Syamsul said, adding that North Sumatra residents feel they have been treated unequally.

Coordinating Economic Minister Hatta Rajasa renewed the central government’s commitment to finish the airport’s development while on an official visit to Medan earlier this week, saying development funds had been allocated.