Gov’t Launches New Vessel to Support Maritime Highway Program
Photo by: PR of Ministry of Transportation
Ministry of Transportation has successfully completed the construction of the pioneer vessel “Sabuk Nusantara 88” (the belt of archipelago 88) to support the maritime highway program.
“We continue to build pioneer vessels to support the maritime highway program which is one of the Government’s priority programs to optimize logistics distribution to eliminate disparities in logistics prices, especially in the outermost, underdeveloped, frontier and border areas,” Minister of Transportation Budi Karya Sumadi said during the send-off ceremony of the pioneer vessel held at Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta, Tuesday (08/12).
The construction of the vessel is a joint operation scheme (KSO) between Ministry of Transportation, PT Dok Perkapalan and Kodja Bahari, and PT. Krakatau Shipyard. After being launched, the vessel will sail to the Sanana port, North Maluku.
“The vessel is a local product. We entrust the building of the vessels to national shipyards so that they can continue to grow and develop,” he said.
The Minister has also instructed his staffers to always coordinate with regional governments on the operation of the vessels so that the vessels utility will be high.
Budi further said that the safety remains a top priority and health protocols should be consistently implemented in sea transportation amid COVID-19 pandemic.
For the record, the Government launched the maritime highway program in 2015 and has continuously improved and developed the program in terms of infrastructure, routes, fleets, total loads and capacity.
Since 2015, Ministry of Transportation has built 100 units of maritime highway support vessels, consisting of 60 pioneer vessels, 15 container vessels, 20 rede vessels, and 5 livestock vessels.
The number of maritime highway routes for freight transport has increased more than three-fold, from three routes in 2015 to six route routes in 2016, and 26 routes in 2020 with 100 transit ports. In the meantime, the maritime highway routes have also developed from 86 routes in 2015 to 110 routes in 2020. (PR of Ministry of Transportation/UN) (RI/MMB)
