Montenegro learns true cost of China-backed $1 bn road to nowhere

Yahoo – AFP, Olivera Nikolic, May 27, 2021 

Chinese wprkers have spent six years carving tunnels through solid rock and
raising concrete pillars above gorges and canyons in Montenegro, but the road
in effect goes nowhere

Two sleek new roads vanish into mountain tunnels high above a sleepy Montenegrin village, the unlikely endpoint of a billion-dollar project bankrolled by China that is threatening to derail the tiny country's economy. 

The government has already burnt through $944 million in Chinese loans to complete the first stretch of road, just 41 kilometres (25 miles), making it among the world's most expensive pieces of tarmac. 

Chinese workers have spent six years carving tunnels through solid rock and raising concrete pillars above gorges and canyons, but the road in effect goes nowhere. 

Almost 130 kilometres still needs to be built at a likely cost of at least one billion euros ($1.2 billion). 

"The construction looks impressive, but we must not stop at this," says 67-year-old Dragan who retired to the village of Matesevo. 

"It's like buying an expensive car and just leaving it parked in the garage." 

Critics question how the rest of the road will be paid for and highlight environmental damage caused by the construction along with corruption allegations over the awarding of work contacts. 

But locals are inclined to talk up the positives. 

"This story has some good sides for us villagers. Some managed to sell their land and leave, which was impossible before," said one villager, whose two-storey home now sits metres from gargantuan concrete pillars propping up the four-lane highway. 

"I manage to sell some vegetables and chickens to the workers," added the man who did not want to be named, reflecting also that dirt mounds from the construction site stop the river from flooding. 

If Montenegro cannot pay its debt to China, it faces arbitration in Beijing and could
be forced to give up control of key infrastructure, according to the contract.

'Big trouble' 

The section linking Matesevo to a town near the capital Podgorica -- the most difficult part to build -- is set to open in November. 

But the road is meant to connect the Adriatic port of Bar in the south with the Serbian border in the north, with the intention that the Serbians will then extend it to their capital, Belgrade. 

It is unclear where the money will come from or how Montenegro -- a country with a GDP of 4.9 billion euros -- will repay its existing debt to China. 

If Montenegro cannot pay, it faces arbitration in Beijing and could be forced to give up control of key infrastructure, according to a copy of the contract seen by AFP. 

China has been widely criticised for saddling small countries with unmanageable debt as part of its global Belt and Road Initiative. 

Critics worry that it will use financial leverage to boost its political power, in what they dub "debt-trap diplomacy". 

But Chinese officials have strenuously denied any ulterior motive to the investment in Montenegro and the wider region. 

"This cooperation is mutually beneficial and win-win," said China's Montenegrin embassy in a statement last month. 

"If someone puts negative labels on China's investment, it is not only unfair to China, but also disrespectful to the countries of the western Balkans." 

With Montenegro's first repayment due in July, it could become the first European country to put those claims to the test. 

"If we do not find sources of funding to build on, then we are in big trouble," Infrastructure Minister Mladen Bojanic told AFP, saying he was committed to finishing the road. 

Critics question how the road will be paid for and highlight environmental damage caused
by the construction along with corruption allegations over the awarding of work contacts.

'Out of public eye' 

Bojanic is now trying to get help from the European Union to rescue a project he bitterly opposed when he was in opposition, labelling it risky and reckless. 

Risky, reckless and, according to campaigners, corrupt. 

More than one-third of local subcontractors chosen to work on the project had links to the former ruling socialists of President Milo Djukanovic. 

There were no public tenders and the relationship between payments received and the work carried out was not clear, according to anti-corruption watchdog MANS. 

"Decisions on construction were wrongly made out of the public eye, and that is something we will now have to pay for," said the group's Dejan Milovac. 

The government has promised to investigate any corruption claims. 

Further questions have been asked about the environmental impact after the construction work ruined a UNESCO-protected stretch of river near Matesevo, the Chinese firm agreeing to fund work to undo the damage. 

The construction work ruined a UNESCO-protected stretch of river near Matesevo
Montenegro. The Chinese firm agreed to fund work to undo the damage

Tolls not enough 

Problems with the project were not unforeseen -- experts queued up a decade ago to tell the government that it was not viable. 

They warned that any benefits to commerce and tourism on the Adriatic, or development for poorer northern regions, would never outweigh the costs. 

The current government has admitted revenue from tolls will not even cover the road's annual maintenance, estimated at 77 million euros ($94 million). 

"It would take at least 22-25,000 vehicles a day for the highway to pay off," civil engineer Ivan Kekovic told AFP, roughly four times the number he could envisage on the busiest stretch. 

Even this gloomy assessment may be optimistic if all Montenegrins do their sums like Zeljko Rajkovic, a 55-year-old teacher in Kolasin, close to Matesevo. 

He weighs up the benefits of heading to Podgorica on the new road: 30 minutes travel time rather than 90 minutes on the old road, improved safety. 

Then he considers the downsides: tolls each way, extra fuel consumption. 

"I'll only use the new road if there's a big storm or an emergency," he concludes.

Video: 8,400 tonne railway bridge moved into place overnight

DutchNews, May 7, 2016

Photo: Rijkswaterstaat

A massive operation to place 255 metre long railway bridge over the A1 motorway near Muiderberg has been completed three hours ahead of schedule, the transport ministry said on Saturday. 

The 8,400 tonne bridge had to be moved 400 metres from the location where it had been assembled to the correct site over the highway. The A1 was closed at 20.00 hours on Friday night to enable the work to take place and reopened at 09.00 on Saturday morning. 

The bridge was put in place by 03.00 but then had to be adjusted millimeter by millimeter to make sure everything joined up. 

Transport ministry spokesman Henk Voerman said the entire operation had proceeded smoothly. ‘It was really imposing to watch, particularly from close up when those enormous wheels began to move,’ he told RTL news. 

Work will now continue on the bridge and it will be opened in August when the old railway bridge will be demolished.

Time lapse of the entire operation

More than 20 killed as flyover collapses in Indian city

Yahoo – AFP, Sailendra Sil, March 31, 2016

The wreckage of a collapsed flyover in Kolkata, India, on March 31, 2016
 (AFP Photo/Dibyangshu Sarkar)

Hundreds of emergency workers in India battled Thursday night to rescue dozens of people still trapped after a flyover collapsed onto a busy street, killing at least 22 people and injuring nearly 100.

The flyover was under construction when a 100-metre (330-feet) section collapsed suddenly onto a crowded street in the eastern city of Kolkata around lunchtime, crushing pedestrians, cars and other vehicles under huge concrete slabs and metal.

"The death toll has risen to 22," Javed Ahmed Khan, disaster management minister for the state of West Bengal, told AFP.

Anil Shekhawat, a spokesman for the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), said seventeen survivers out of 92 rescued were still undergoing treatment at hospital.

Most suffered multiple fractures and were in a critical condition, Shekhawat added, saying that the death toll was expected to rise, with an unknown number of people still trapped under the wreckage.

Specialist rescue teams armed with concrete and metal cutters, drilling machines, sensors to detect life and sniffer dogs were sifting through the rubble.

India (AFP Photo)

Anurag Gupta, a spokesman for the National Disaster Management Authority, told AFP hundreds of rescuers would work through the night to rescue the trapped victims.

"Four hundred men from NDRF and 300 Indian army men along with hundreds of police and local officials are at the spot," Gupta said.

Authorities sealed off the accident site to members of the public, who in the initial hours were seen trying to pull away concrete slabs with their bare hands.

Workers struggled to get cranes and other large machinery through the narrow streets of Burrabazar, one of the oldest and most congested parts of the city, where locals desperately waited for news of missing loved ones.

"Everything is finished," screamed Parbati Mondal, whose fruit-seller husband had not been seen since the accident.

An injured builder told AFP at the scene that he had been working on the structure before it collapsed and had seen bolts come out of the metal girders.

"We were cementing two iron girders for the pillars, but the girders couldn't take the weight of the cement," said 30-year-old Milan Sheikh before being taken away to hospital.

"The bolts started coming out this morning and then the flyover came crashing down."

Construction on the two-kilometre-long flyover began in 2009 and was supposed to be completed within 18 months but has suffered a series of hold-ups.

The disaster is the latest in a string of deadly construction accidents in India, where enforcement of safety rules is weak and substandard materials are often used.

'Like a bomb blast'

Many locals said they were fleeing their houses for fear that more of the damaged structure could collapse.

"We heard a massive bang sound and our house shook violently. We thought it was an earthquake," 45-year-old resident Sunita Agarwal told AFP.

"We're leaving -- who knows what will happen next."

The disaster came just days before the World T20 cricket final, which is set to draw thousands of fans to the city this Sunday.

Television footage showed one bloodied body trapped under a concrete slab, and also the hand of a person sticking out from under twisted debris.

An eyewitness at the scene described a loud bang "like a bomb blast and suddenly there was a lot of smoke and dust".

A crane was seen lifting a mangled car from under the debris and part of a crushed bus was visible protruding from the rubble, although it was unclear if it had been carrying passengers.

K.P. Rao, a representative of the Indian construction company IVRCL, which was contracted to build the giant flyover, called the disaster an "act of God".

Their offices in Kolkata were sealed by investigators and police filed an initial charge of "culpable homicide not amounting to murder" against the company.

The firm was given an 18-month deadline and a budget of nearly $25 million to complete the project in 2009, but after seven years only about 55 percent of the work has been done.

In 2014 the company wrote to the city's development authority to say it was running out of funds to complete the project.

Mamata Banerjee, the chief minister of West Bengal of which Kolkata is the capital, told reporters those behind the disaster would "not be spared".

The accident comes as the West Bengal government is about to face state elections, with voting scheduled to start in early April and run until May.

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Three people arrested in connection with deadly overpass accident in Kolkata

From Aceh to Papua: Jokowi’s Infrastructure Visions

Jakarta Globe, Yanto Soegiarto, Apr 19, 2015

Cyclists crossing the Kelok 9 flyover in Payakumbuh, West Sumatra on
 July 3, 2013. GlobeAsia Both local and international investors have turned
 their attention to President Joko Widodo’s ambitious plans. (JG Photo/Afriadi Hikmal)

The building of infrastructure in Indonesia is the key to understanding the extent of progress in the country.

During the World Economic Forum on East Asia, a question will be asked: Is Indonesia doing enough to show the public and investors they can trust that infrastructure development is moving ahead toward growth and becoming competitive in the region.

Indonesia, meanwhile, has been given the opportunity to showcase development and attract investment while playing host to the WEF event.

The administration of President Joko Widodo has set an infrastructure target, to be achieved by 2019, in which 24 seaports, 15 airports, power plants with a capacity of 35,000 megawatts and nine million hectares of agriculture land will be developed.

This was reiterated by WEF Indonesia committee member and Trade Minister Rachmat Gobel in a recent briefing to ambassadors and prominent business leaders.

The administration is confident in its programs to build dams, toll roads and railways to boost the local economy and raise the living standards of local communities.

Joko traveled to Aceh in March to inaugurate a number of projects in the area.

In North Aceh, he presided over the groundbreaking of the Keureuto dam — the largest to be built this year and expected to increase agricultural output in the region.

The construction of the dam will allow the irrigation of other regions which are in a deficit of rice production.

The dam is being built by state-owned construction companies Brantas Abipraya, Hutama Karya and Wijaya Karya.

It will hold 167 million cubic meters of water and irrigate 4,768 hectares of agricultural land. The reservoir will also prevent flooding in the downstream region.

Joko then moved on to Sabang, Indonesia’s most western tip, where he jump-started the construction of the Seunara reservoir, which has been stalled for more than nine years due to land clearance issues.

The issue was eventually solved as Joko negotiated with over 200 local residents who had been holding out for a larger compensation package.

“After talking to the residents, they have no problem. We have the budget, what’s important is the reservoir will be completed this year and function,” said Joko, who was accompanied by Aceh Governor Abdullah Zaini and Public Works and Housing Minister Basuki Hadimulyono.

The reservoir will provide water and help the local community boost income through the development of water tourism and aquaculture.

Veteran infrastructure expert Scott Younger says the president’s move to resolve the stalled Seunara project provides encouragement.

“He has quickly recognized the serious issue of lack of water storage across the country and acted on it. It is also positive that he has inaugurated the long-defined Keureuto project.

“With this early action it would seem that the president will certainly be trying to meet the target of 13 dam projects for this year,” Younger said.

But, he says, the longer-term concern is the lack of engineering and construction industry capacity to carry out all the work planned in the administration’s term, not just in water storage but across the infrastructure space as a whole.

Undaunted, the president pressed on to Lhokseumawe, the home of Kertas Kraft Aceh.

The company stopped production years ago, but the president has voiced he would like to see it running again as to contribute to the local economy.

“For more than 15 years I have wanted the company to be in operation again. There is adequate supply of raw materials from the forests which can be managed by the local people.

“We can plant fast-growing sub-tropical trees such as albizia or pine and we don’t have to wait 15, 20 or 30 years,” he said.

The president is no stranger to Aceh. He spent his early working years there and his first child was born in the province.

“Ibu Jokowi and I are very familiar with Aceh,” he said.

In Arun, just north of Lhokseumawe, the president launched the Arun regasification and storage terminal, marking a milestone in the country’s efforts to shift its energy consumption toward gas.

The plant sits on the now-depleted wells of Indonesia’s first natural gas resource, now run by Perta Arun Gas, a subsidiary of state-owned Pertamina Gas.

“The facility will regasify LNG sent from Kilang Tangguh in Papua,” Pertamina Gas president director Hendra Jaya explained, adding that the plant will provide the state electricity company with gas to power its generators in Belawan, Medan.

Joko’s initiative in Aceh marks a significant move in the nation’s infrastructure building, no president before him has had a similar strategy.

Dams and roads

This year, the administration is at work building at least 13 of the projected 49 dams it wants to construct over the next five years. The cost of the 13 dams will be at least Rp 12 trillion ($934 million), excluding land-clearance costs. The projects will be funded by the state budget.

Rising transportation and logistics costs have also won the attention of the government.

Many toll roads are to be constructed and work on the 2,700-kilometer Trans-Sumatra toll road, which will link Aceh and Lampung, is due to start this month.

The government has assigned Hutama Karya to undertake the project, as it is the only large state infrastructure firm not listed on the stock exchange.

Construction of the road has been estimated to cost Rp 300 trillion, with the government asking other state enterprises and local governments to cooperate without reservation.

The first stage of the project is to build 1,300 kilometers of road. Hutama Karya has been given an additional injection of funds by the government to get the job done.

Earlier Hutama Karya and other state enterprises, including banks, were ready to finance the project without relying on the state budget but the government deemed it would create too much of a burden.

During the previous administration of president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the project was also to be managed by Hutama Kaya. The project proved difficult to get started due to financial concerns with investors reluctant to commit to such a long-term project.

The focus then turned to building the Medan-Binjai toll road, but that plan has also changed, with the focus now on the link between Bakaheuni in Lampung and Palembang, the capital of South Sumatra.

The April ground-breaking date was chosen at a limited cabinet session presided over by Joko, Vice President Jusuf Kalla, Public Works Minister Basuki Hadimulyono, State-owned Enterprises Minister Rini M. Soemarno and Finance Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro.

An important part of the decision was the revision of the previous presidential decree number 100/2014 which put an emphasis on land acquisition as a priority.

In a recent development, Rini revealed that four state enterprises — Hutama Karya, Jasa Marga, Waskita Karya and Wijaya Karya — will be tasked to jointly commission the project.

“The project will be done in sections. For instance Waskita Karya will do section 1, Wijaya Karya section 2 and so forth, Part of it will hopefully be completed in 2018,” she said, adding that some sections of the road will be commissioned by local governments involving the private sector.

Railway development

Following Joko’s pledge last year to develop railways in Papua, the Transportation Ministry will allocate at least Rp 105.6 trillion over the next five years to build railway networks beyond Java.

“We have evaluated the budget needs of the Directorate General of Railways at the ministry for the next five years and according to the new master plan pushed by the president, completion of the project is slated for 2019,” Director General for Railways Hermanto Dwiatmoko said.

In business terms, railway development beyond Java can be complex because of feasibility and financing, and as a result funding for railway development has to come either from the state budget or through public-private partnership, he said.

The plan may appear ambitious but Hermanto insisted that the project will begin in 2016.

It will contribute to what will become a total national railway network stretching 3,258 kilometers and be the longest railway project since the Dutch occupation of Indonesia.

Meanwhile, a feasibility study for the construction of the Trans Papua Railway has already begun. The new railway track will span 595 kilometers connecting Sorong and Jayapura.

Home Affairs Minister Tjahjo Kumolo said that development outside Java is one of the president’s priorities.

“There are many regions and border areas which are still untouched by infrastructure development.

“The president is committed to developing the eastern part of Indonesia where infrastructure is less developed.

“We at the Ministry of Home Affairs have reached a consensus with the Ministry of Public Works to support and develop infrastructure mainly in Papua, East Nusa Tenggara and the Kalimantan border areas,” he said.

House Commission V members who have visited Papua to see the prospective railway plan say they back the government’s initiative.

They have also encouraged the people of Papua to support it.

At the local level, regional officials have discussed the railway project with the central government but still have questions about the source of finance.

“We will have certainty on that in one or two months,” said regional secretary Ella Loupatty.

“We think that the project will begin from Sorong in West Papua and connect the Sarmi district in Papua province. If the project is realized, the distribution of goods will be easier and prices will go down in many areas.”

Hermanto added that he had asked regional officials to help in the process of land clearance, which poses one of the major hurdles to any infrastructure project.

He believes it is feasible to complete the Papua railway project within five years.

“We expect the project to be expedited although we note that any infrastructure development in Papua is not easy. But, we can’t delay it,” he said.

Higher commodity prices

Without the development of better infrastructure in the area, the price of cement could go as high as Rp 2 million for a 50 kilogram sack, while basic commodities such as sugar could cost between Rp 15,000 and Rp 50,000 a kilogram, many times over the price for such staples on Java.

Commenting on the rail plans, Younger, the infrastructure expert, says the target dates are highly optimistic.

“While railways must be part of the transportation infrastructure build-out, an emphasis for off-Java railway construction seems difficult to reconcile,” he says.

“There is still much to do in rail in Java and especially around the main urban centers, such as Jakarta and for fast rail links between the major cities. Railways make sense when there are many people and/or a large volume of commodities to transport.

“Java and off-Java highly-populated centers, such as Medan, fill the first criterion and off-Java in certain specific locations for the movement of commodities.”

And, he adds, the public-private partnership concept has been around for more than a decade, but a workable model is still to be found.

More needs to be done to encourage private investment.

Meanwhile, a number of countries in the East Asia region such as Singapore, Japan, and China have expressed interest to invest power plants projects in Indonesia, according to the Investment Coordination Board (BKPM).

The BKPM has received 12 new applications for investment permits from foreign investors to build power plants worth $8.9 billion, or around Rp 116 trillion.

It’s not just foreign investors looking towards Indonesian infrastructure — many domestic investors are interested as well.

BKPM chairman Franky Sibarani said that his office has also received applications for investment permits from 17 local investors.

GlobeAsia and the Jakarta Globe are media partners of the World Economic Forum on East Asia. Parts of this article originally appeared in the April issue of GlobeAsia.

GlobeAsia

Port Road Continues Falling Apart

Jakarta Globe, Ulma Haryanto, Dofa Fasila & Arientha Primanita | February 12, 2011

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Just two months after it reopened following Rp 9 billion ($1 million) worth of repairs, Jalan R.E. Martadinata in Ancol, North Jakarta, is collapsing at several points along its southern section.

Residents said the affected section of road, only a few meters from the Ancol train station, had subsided severely months earlier.

“The road has been like that for a couple of months now,” Beni, 24, a motorcycle taxi driver, told the Jakarta Globe on Friday.

“A week ago some people from the Public Works Ministry came and put up barriers around the collapsed section.”

The road was more severely damaged last September along its northern stretch, 2.5 kilometers from Ancol station, when a 103-meter span consisting of two entire lanes collapsed into the Japat River below.

Authorities blamed the collapse of the 20-year-old road on the erosion of the supporting piles by tidal surges, while urban planners and city councilors believed it was due to weak monitoring and lack of maintenance.

Repairs were carried out by state-owned contractor Wijaya Karya at a cost Rp 9 billion, and the section of road was reopened in December.

When the Globe visited the site on Friday, it could be seen that several sections of Jalan Martadinata had subsided into the river, which runs along the right side of the road.

At least four sections of the road were being shored up by bamboo scaffolding.

Agus, 55, a construction worker who lives and works in the area, said the damage had begun almost a year ago.

“At the time, there was work being done to pave the road,” he said. “The contractors never got around to laying down the concrete before the land suddenly subsided beneath the road.”

Djoko Murjanto, director general of the Public Works Ministry’s Bina Marga unit, which oversees roads, said the cause of the recent collapse was land subsidence in the area.

“We’ve installed sheet piles to support the collapsed sections,” he said.

“We had planned to install them since the collapse of the road last year, however the land subsided faster than we expected.”

He added that an evaluation by the ministry last November had resulted in recommendations to shore up the entire length of Jalan Martadinata with sheet piles.

“Today we’ve done initial measurements for the section that has severely subsided, including other sections that are at risk of collapse, and we’ll install sheet piles along a 100-meter section to reinforce these sections,” Djoko said.

“The old design for the road didn’t call for piles because it was structurally sound, but the soil structure has changed since then, becoming soft and prone to subsidence.”

He said the planned repairs on the critical section were expected to be completed within two months, while repairs to the rest of the road would be completed later this year.

Djoko also said that since September’s collapse, his ministry had been monitoring the overall condition of Jalan Martadinata, one of the main roads for container traffic to Tanjung Priok Port.

“We’ve made a list of where repairs are needed and the points where strengthening of the physical structure is needed,” he said.

“A tender process for the repairs is also under way.”

He added that because the latest subsidence had been unexpected, the ministry would speed up repairs by skipping a tender and appoint a contractor.

“We estimate that it will cost Rp 2 billion,” he said.

Also on Friday, Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo said he had ordered the city’s Public Works Office to carry out an investigation into the newly collapsed section of road.

“The road is a national road, which means it falls under the authority of the Public Works Ministry, but we can help by carrying out our own investigation,” he said at City Hall.

He added that much of North Jakarta was prone to land subsidence as a result of massive groundwater extraction, which in turn exacerbated tidal flooding that kept the soil in a continuously soft state and more at risk of further subsidence.

Fauzi said the problem essentially boiled down to the lack of access to clean water in the area.

“As long as the public isn’t served by a good water network, they’ll keep pumping up groundwater,” he said.

“We need to be able to provide sufficient clean water to resolve this issue.”

Parts of North and West Jakarta have experienced some of the worst rates of land subsidence in the city since 1974.

The worst-hit areas are Muara Baru and Ancol, both in North Jakarta, which have sunk by 4.1 meters and 1.88 meters respectively during this time.

In West Jakarta, the land has subsided by up to 2.5 meters in West Cengkareng and 1.97 meters in Daan Mogot.

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Main road collapses in North Jakarta

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Thu, 09/16/2010 3:10 PM

Slip road? Residents look at a collapsed section of Jl. RE Martadinata in Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta, on Thursday. Antara/Ujang Zaelani

A section of Jl. R.E. Martadinata in Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta, more than 100 meters long subsided 7 meters early on Thursday morning, hampering motorists from the Ancol area getting to Tanjung Priok Port.

To avoid congestion, Jakarta Police deployed more officers to reroute motorists onto alternative roads, police chief Insp. Gen. Timur Pradopo said during his visit to the collapsed road.

“The police and officials from the Public Works Ministry will set up a team to investigate the cause of the incident,” he added.

Meanwhile, motorcycles and cars are being allowed to travel on an unimpaired section of the road from Tanjung Priok to the Ancol area, said Timur.

State-run road contractor PT Binamarga District II director Winarno said the sloping ground might have caused the road to collapse.

River water, from a dredging project in the nearby Jabat River, had softened the soil on which the road was built, he added.

Divers searching for a reported victim of the road collapse in Jakarta on Friday. They found no trace of a body. (JG Photo/Safir Makki)

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Collapsed Road Was ‘Yet Another Botched Project’

Lampung prepares groundwork to invite investors

Oyos Saroso H.N. , The Jakarta Post , Bandarlampung | Sat, 11/28/2009 1:07 PM

The Lampung provincial administration is formulating regulations in response to anticipated consequences from the construction of the Sunda Strait bridge (JSS) after the central government took over the endeavor as a national project.

The regulations, in the form of local ordinances, will focus on investment and development in Lampung with a view to protecting the community from any negative impacts resulting from the bridge's presence or operation.

"Without regulations, money would rapidly flow out of the province because people in Lampung could easily go to Jakarta to shop and spend their money. Also, industries that are very lax or not concerned with environmental safety could invest or move their operations to Lampung if adequate regulations were not in place," Lampung Governor Sjachroedin Z.P. said.

Sjachroedin expressed hope the JSS, connecting the islands of Java and Sumatra, would be completed quickly.

"We don't want to be lose out to the bridge connecting Dumai in Riau with Malaysia," he said.

Sjachroedin said he was pleased by the central government's positive stance on the proposal - formed by the Lampung and Banten provincial administrations and governors from across Sumatra - to build the bridge.

"We are rather impatient because studies of a planned Java-Sumatra bridge have been conducted since the 1980s. Had the central government refused to assist, we *the Banten governor and governors from across Sumatra* would have built the JSS ourselves. We would have invited investors and managed it together with the Banten provincial administration," Sjachroedin said.

Prior to discussions at the national level, he added governors of eight provinces in Sumatra and the Banten governor had discussed the plan and the project's potentially huge benefits.

According to Sjachroedin, PT Artha Graha had conducted the project's feasibility studies.

"We invite the central government to conduct another study should they wish to do so," he said.

"The social disparity between Lampung and Banten provinces can certainly be reduced if the JSS project is realized," he added.

"The JSS, which is planned to have a height of 70 meters with a span of 30.4 meters, is designed to be able to withstand earthquakes and tsunamis. We are aware of the presence of the active Mount Anak Krakatau in the Sunda Strait which is prone to eruption and could trigger a tsunami," Sjachroedin said.

The JSS project has also highlighted possible impacts on the Archipelagic Sea Lanes of Indonesia (ALKI), which organizes marine navigation. The deepest sea gap included in the ALKI is located between Sangiang and Prajurit islands spanning 3.5 kilometers. According to the JSS plan, two of the bridge's support pillars will be built on each island.

The cost of the JSS project is estimated at Rp 92 trillion (US$9.79 billion), which will be divided into two phases. The first phase, costing Rp 1.8 trillion, would cover the feasibility studies and engineering costs, while the second phase would be the construction, costing Rp 90.2 trillion. The project has an estimated time to completion period of between six and 10 years.

At the end of October, Coordinating Economic Minister Hatta Radjasa said Indonesia would prioritize the development of domestic infrastructure, including the completion of the JSS.

Hatta added that the government would look to develop local economies through the JSS project. He said the recent focus on the JSS project was also aimed at preventing commodities in Sumatra from being sent to Malaysia and to create better connections between Java and Sumatra.

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