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fter 19 years of design and construction, the Kuala Namu International Airport in North Sumatra is slated to fully commence operations in March to replace the 70-year-old Polonia Airport located in the heart of the province’s capital, Medan.

Deputy Transportation Minister Bambang Susantono said on Thursday that the airport would start trial operations this month to review the flow of its operations and detect possible flaws before putting it into full service.

“We have to begin operations at Kuala Namu in the first quarter of this year because of the sharp jump in passenger traffic at Polonia, which is running beyond its capacity,” said Bambang.

“With the current [construction] progress, we believe we that we’ll be able to operate on-schedule,” he said.

According to the Transportation Ministry, around 90 percent of Kuala Namu’s construction had been completed as of Dec. 28.

State airport operator PT Angkasa Pura II (AP II) is currently finishing the airport’s runway, which involves improvements of its surface.

Expected to serve as the main gateway for resource-rich Sumatra, the airport will have the capacity to serve 8.1 million passengers annually.

The airport, located around 42 kilometers from Polonia, will be equipped with a 3,750-meter runway and 33 aprons that will be able to accommodate wide-body aircraft, such as Airbus A330s, A380s, and Boeing B747s.

Transportation to the airport will also be equipped with railway facilities linking the airport with Medan.

According to Bambang, the railway would also be fully operational in March.

State railway company PT Kereta Api Indonesia (KAI) is accelerating the project after it fully acquired the needed land in December, Bambang added.

Travelers from Medan will arrive at the airport within just 30 minutes.

The government and AP II have spent Rp 10.6 trillion (US$1.1 billion) for the airport — more than threefold the initial estimation of around Rp 3.5 trillion offered to investors during the government-initiated Infrastructure Summit in 2005.

The investment excludes the cost for the railway.

According to the ministry, soaring costs were mostly driven by expensive land acquisition, inflation adjustment and design changes.

Experts have also pointed out project mismanagement and flaws in its initial design for contributing to the whopping costs.

Investments in Kuala Namu have surpassed investments in the extension of Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, which has been earmarked at around Rp 7 trillion. The extension, which will acquire vast land already occupied by housing compounds in the north-west area of Jakarta, will have the capacity to serve 40 million passengers annually, and will be equipped with a longer runaway than that of Kuala Namu.