Local firms to build "coal railway" in Central Kalimantan

A consortium of several local companies will build a 200-km railway system in Barito Utara (Barut) regency in Central Kalaimantan to transport coal from the regency's Teweh Timur district to the Teluk Adang port in East Kalimantan, Investor Daily reported on Thursday.

Barut's regent, Achmad Yuliansah, said in the regency's capital of Muara Taweh on Wednesday that the consortium led by PT Pola Daya Investama would invest about Rp 1.7 trillion to build the 200-km railway.

"The railway will be built because the existing rivers could no longer be used to transport the coal produced by coal mining companies in the area," he was quoted as saying. He added that the consortium was currently conducting a feasibility study in cooperation with the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB).

Yuliansyah said that the railway would be built by Australian company John Holland, which built a railway system in the Asutralian mining town of Mackay."Hopefully, the construction of the railway could be begun in 2006," he said. (*)