Indonesia's Sorong Port construction to be delayed
Typical Indonesian problems of land acquisition will delay the construction of Sorong Port in West Papua until 2013 from its original plan for the fourth quarter of this year, according to Indonesian state-owned port operator PT Pelindo II, Seatrade Asia online reports.
Pelindo II corporate secretary Yan Budi Santoso was quoted as saying problems had occurred because the new port was to be constructed on land belonging to indigenous people. “Most of the area where we will construct the port belongs to the local people and we have found that it is not that easy to convince them that the project will benefit them,” local media reports quoted Yan as saying.
The port has a planned capacity of 500,000 teu and needs around 7,500 hectares, taking into consideration future expansion plans.
Pelindo II, which is working in conjunction with another state-owned port operator, PT Pelindo IV, and five shipping companies - PT Meratus Line, PT Salam Pacific Indonesia Line, PT Samudera Indonesia, PT Tanto Intim Line and PT Tempuran Mas - is spending IDR1trn ($104m) on the project.
Yan said the port is scheduled to start operations by the end of 2014 and will cut logistics costs in the region by half.
