Minister to Develop Three Monorail Projects

Madiun, E Java (Antara) - State-owned Enterprise (SOE) Minister Dahlan Iskan said he was planning to develop three monorail projects in Indonesia. "The three monorail projects will be built in Jakarta and East Java. One will be built inside the capital city while the other two will be on the route to Jakarta's Soekarno Hatta Airport and a container monorail project on the route to Tanjung Perak port of Surabaya (East Java)," Minister Dahlan said here on Monday. The size of the monorail project that would be built inside the city will be two times bigger than that in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. "The size is big because it will be used by many passengers," the minister said. The size of monorail that would be built for the Soekarno-Hatta airport is smaller than that inside the city but bigger than the Monorail at Changi airport of Singapore. A monorail station will also be developed around the Soekarto-Hatta airport. The minister hoped that the contract of the monorail project for Soekarno-Hatta airport would be signed soon between airport operator firm Angkasa Pura 2 and a state-owned company consortium (ADHI-INKA - LEN). "We hope that the monorail would start operation 18 months after the signing of the agreement," Minister Dahlan said. The Tanjung Perak monorail project in East Java is a project for container monorail.(*) (T.SYS/A/A. Abdussalam/F. Assegaf)