Indonesia aims to complete the first phase of the Patimban port on the northern coast of Java island by November, a senior minister said on Tuesday.
The 43.2 trillion rupiahs ($2.92 billion) Patimban port in the town of Subang in West Java is among the government’s priority projects in order to relieve pressure on Jakarta’s congested Tanjung Priok port.
Coordinating Minister of Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto said the president had called for the port to be launched in November. It is set to host a first shipment of cars after the launch, Hartarto told a streamed news conference.
Over 80% of the work on building docks and land reclamation has been completed, while construction of breakwaters and sea walls had reached almost 56%, he said.
A consortium of Japanese and Indonesian companies is building the first phase and the project is partly funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
The Patimban port will improve the country’s infrastructure
The president told a cabinet meeting broadcast live that the port would improve infrastructure near the Karawang and Purwakarta industrial parks, “therefore improving the competitiveness of our export products, especially in the automotive sector.”
West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil said the port could also support his plan to establish a new metropolitan city and create five million jobs in the next 15 years.
Patimban port is one of the government’s national strategic projects, funded by an official development assistance (ODA) loan from the Japanese government amounting to Rp 14.2 trillion (US$968.5 million) for the first development phase.
The port is expected to be Indonesia’s primary export port and to ease the burden on Tanjung Priok Port and traffic congestion in Jakarta from the transport of cargo. It is also projected to support the future Rebana Special Economic Zones (SEZ) in Cirebon, Patimban, and Kertajati in West Java, along with Kertajati International Airport.
In the first development phase, Patimban Port is planned to serve 3.75 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) and accommodate 600,000 complete built-up (CBU) vehicles. Meanwhile, in the second phase, Patimban’s capacity will increase to 5.5 million TEUs and it is expected to reach its final capacity of 7.5 million TEUs in phase 3.