T

angerang administration and state airport operator PT Angkasa Pura II have agreed to expand the area of Soekarno-Hatta International Airport using land in several subdistricts including Teluk Naga and Kosambi.

The expansion could be by up to 1,000 hectares, Tangerang Spatial Planning Agency chief Akip Syamsudin told tempointeraktif.com on Wednesday.

“We expect the acquisition of 1,000 hectares of land from 10 villages in the Teluk Naga and Kosambi subdistricts will be finished within a year,” he said.

Akip added that the expansion would support a program to develop the Kota Baru Pantura area, which would include the reclamation of 9,000 hectares of sea.

Angkasa Pura II director Tri Sunoko said that the expansion would be carried out to build new runways, amid a 10 percent increase in numbers of passengers each year, and with the passenger numbers expected to reach 75 million by 2017.

“The construction of runway number 3 is targeted to be finished in 2017,” he said.

Sunoko declined to comment on the amount of funds allocated to build the third runway, which has been proposed in anticipation of a surge in passenger numbers.

Soekarno-Hatta International Airport currently covers an area of 1,740 hectares, and serves up to 32 million passengers a year. — JP