Miners told to build roads

The South Kalimantan parliament demands the local administration to maintain a ruling, which bans coal producers from using public roads to transport coal.

Parliament head Masyah Add said on Friday that the ban was needed to protect the public roads from serious damage.

Since the province government applied the ruling early in January, more than 400,000 tons of coal worth some Rp 40 billion could not be transported to local ports for export.

The ruling was issued following protest from the local people saying that coal trucks dominated public roads, bullied other motorists and caused air pollution. The mining companies are required to build their own roads to transport their coal.

So far, PT Adaro Indonesia and PT Hasnur have their own coal transportation roads, whereas public roads are often used by illegal mining companies. (*)