Govt to Take Over Supervision of Vessel in Lake Toba
Ministry of Transportation decided to take over supervision of transportation services in Lake Toba, North Sumatra after a vessel, KM Sinar Bangun, sank in this lake in mid-June causing death of hundreds of people.
Minister of Transportation Budi Karya Sumadi said that the decision was taken because not all transport regulators at Regional Governments can perform their responsibilities properly.
I will meet with Minister of State Apparatus Empowerment and Bureaucratic Reform as well as Minister of Home Affairs to restructure the organization regarding transportation services in Lake Toba. In my opinion, the operation can be carried out by Regional Government at province and regency levels but the Central Government will be in charge of the transportation supervision. We will also educate local residents around Lake Toba, Budi said after attending the 14th National Dialogue Advance Indonesia in Medan on Thursday (5/7).
Minister of Transportation ensures his ministry will revitalize passenger vessels operating in Lake Toba and set appropriate standards, so there will be no more unqualified vessels.
Furthermore, Ministry of Transportation will involve a number of authorities to conduct regular monitoring of the operation of passenger vessels in Lake Toba such as the Indonesian National Defense Force (TNI) and the Indonesian National Police (Polri) as well as Regional Governments. Hopefully, transportation services in Lake Toba will be better.
In addition to the revitalization and restructuring, the Minister said that he will also build several new ports and vessels in Lake Toba. We are now building 6 ports and also 6 vessels which capacities are 5 times bigger than the current ones, the Minister said.
Ministry of Transportation is also educating 100 people as syahbandar (port authorities) in Lake Toba as an effort to provide education and understanding to local residents. (Humas Kemenhub/ES) (GWH/MMB/Naster)
