PTBA, partners to start coal railway project end of this year
Thursday, April 22 2010 - 03:56 AM WIB
The railway will carry coal from PTBA's mine in Bangko Tengah area in South Sumatra to Srengsem area in Lampung.
The consortium called PT Bukit Asam TransPacific Railway (BATR) consists of PT Bukit Asam (Persero) with a share ownership of 10 percent, PT Transpacific Railway Infrastructure (80 Percent) and China Railway Engineering Corporation (CREC) (10 percent).
The consortium signed a four-year Engineering Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract worth US$1.3 billion and a 20-year Operation & Maintenance (O&M) contract worth US$3.5 billion for 20 years with CREC on March 23, 2010.
In three months since the signing of the EPC contract, the consortium will complete the project?s design details and, after that, will do the layout of the project, a work which is expected to take three months to complete, PTBA's president director Soekrisno told reporters on Wedenesday.
The consortium is expected to complete about 50 percent land clearance before the year-end, he said.
The railway is scheduled to start operation in mid or end of 2014 and will be able to transport 25 million tons of PTBA?s coal per year, he said.
Based on 2007 FS, the project will cost the consortium US$1.3 billion, 70 percent of which will be funded by loans.
According to Soekrisno, there are four Chinese banks including Export Import Bank of China as lead lender, Bank of China, which have committed to financing 85 percent of total project costs. (denny)