PTBA, KAI to pick consultant to establish coal railway project JV

State-owned coal mining firm PT Tambang Batubara Bukit Asam (PTBA) and state-owned railway operator PT Kereta Api Indonesia (KAI) will soon establish a joint venture to expand railway coal transportation capacity, Kontan reported Friday.

 

KAI's president director Ronny Wahyudi said in Jakarta on Thursday that the two companies would soon launch a tender to choose a consultant to prepare the establishment of the joint venture.

 

"We hope the tender could be opened next week so that we could soon name the consultant for the joint venture establishment," he said, adding that a number of international consulting firms such as Ernst and Young, JP Morgan, KPMG International, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu and Pricewaterhouse Cooper had expressed keen interest to take part in the tender.

 

Ronny said that the joint venture would expand the capacity of KAI's existing railway track to transport PTBA's coal from the latter's mining area in Tanjung Enim, South Sumatra to the coal terminal in Tarahan, Lampung.

 

The expansion project with costs estimated at about Rp 3.5 trillion willl include the procurement of ten locomotives and 200 wagons.

 

The project is expected to increase the volume of the coal transportation to about 10-12 million tons in 2008 from about 8 million tons at present and to between 15 million and 20 million tons in 2010. (*)