Regency dismisses Kalimantan coal railway megaproject ?unclear?

A regency official in East Kalimantan said the plan by a local firm in cooperation with international companies to build a railway on the island of Kalimantan for coal transportation was still ?unclear?.

?The project is unclear. The council has asked us to study the project and we have set up a team to carry out the study,? HS Fathurahman, secretary to the planning office of the Pasir regency administration, was quoted by local daily Kaltim Post as saying.

Fathurahman said since the project was still unclear, the regency had not yet made any decision whether to participate in the project as a shareholder.

He admitted however that the project has a bright prospect from the economic point of view.

The megaproject was initiated by local firm PT Senong Corporindo, which plans to build a giant railway network linking all coal mining operations in South Kalimantan and East Kalimantan to the seaport. The railway network is expected to reduce the cost expenditure of the mining companies for the transportation of their coal.

In the first phase of the project, Senong planned to build a 150-kilometer railway linking the Tabalong regency in South Kalimantan to the Pasir regency, according to the paper.

The paper further said several international organizations, including Siemens, Ferrostahl, Bombardier, China Railway Corporation, Economy and Energy Institute of Japan would involve in the project.

Three months ago, then Coordinating Minister for the Economy Rizal Ramli, who is now Minister of Finance, had held a presentation about the project in Berlin, Germany, which resulted in the readiness of three German investors to participate in the project, the paper said.

If realized, the project will become the first railway to be built on the island. (*)