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Ministry orders vessels to fix up navigation
The Transportation Ministry signed contracts with three shipbuilders on Wednesday for the construction of eight vessels to help improve the countryâs ship navigation systems and sea safety
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he Transportation Ministry signed contracts with three shipbuilders on Wednesday for the construction of eight vessels to help improve the country's ship navigation systems and sea safety.
The ministry signed contracts worth a total of Rp 539.99 billion (US$38.9 million) with three shipbuilding companies, including PT Dumas Tanjung Perak Shipyard, PT Multi Prima and PT Citra Shipyard.
'These new vessels will improve the government's capacity to ensure sufficient sailing navigation in the country,' the ministry's director general for sea transportation, Bobby Mamahit, said
on Wednesday.
The eight vessels consist of three buoy tender ships to maintain and replace navigation buoys and five boats to monitor lighthouses.
Construction of the ships will be funded using the state budget. The buoy tender ships will be built between 2015 and 2017 while the inspection boats will be developed in 2015-2016.
The buoy tender vessels will be stationed in several navigation areas, including Sorong in West Papua, Makassar in South Sulawesi and Bitung in North Sulawesi, while the inspection boats will be placed in Teluk Bayur, West Sumatra; Benoa, Bali; Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara; Sabang, Aceh; and Sibolga, North Sumatra.
The eight ships are part of the ministry's sea transportation directorate general's plan to build 190 ships to support ship navigation as part of President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo's program to upgrade the country's sea transportation system.
Bobby said the government would invest a total of Rp 11.8 trillion between 2015 to 2017.
'So far, we have signed contracts for [the development of] 30 ships. I hope all of the contracts can be signed in November,' Bobby said, adding that all of the ships had been opened for tender.
He aimed to sign contracts amounting to Rp 3 trillion this year from a total of Rp 11.8 trillion, he said.
Bobby said some of the new ships would replace old ones, which accounted for 30 percent of the ministry's total 67 ships.
'Some are already 40 years old and they are not so efficient fuel wise,' he said.
To ensure safety in sea transportation, ideally the ministry should have 120 ships designated for navigation systems, according to Bobby.
The ministry has aimed to add at least 10 navigation ships during the next three years with total investment of around Rp 835 billion.
He also said that the construction of the ships was expected to boost the ministry's spending by around 10 percent until the end of the year.
The ministry's spending has been deemed lackluster as it remained around 20 percent by the end of September, Transportation Minister Ignasius Jonan said recently.
The ministry will also build five more livestock carrier vessels this year, as requested by Agriculture Minister Amran Sulaiman.
'One whose contract was signed last year is already finished, and it will start operating by November. It can contain at least 400 head of livestock,' Bobby said.
The new ship will serve a route connecting Waingapu in East Nusa Tenggara and Cirebon, West Java.
Meanwhile, Dumas Tanjung Perak Shipyards president director Yance Gunawan said the ship construction was the company's first project this year, as the shipbuilding industry has been hit by the depreciation of the rupiah and the slowing economy.
'We don't even see the amount of money anymore, as long as we can get something to work on,'
Yance said.
He said the current conditions were particularly hard as imported materials made up 70 percent of shipbuilding needs at present. (fsu)
