By DPA
Jakarta : Indonesia hopes to begin construction of the world’s longest road and railway bridge in 2012 in a plan that would link the islands of Java and Sumatra, media reports said Thursday.
A memorandum of understanding for the 30 km long project across the Sunda Strait was signed Wednesday between the governors of western Java’s Banten province and southern Sumatra’s Lampung province and representatives of a consortium that is to construct the bridge.
The $10 billion project is for a series of bridges traversing three small islands in the Sunda Strait and carrying a six-lane highway and double-track railway, The Jakarta Post reported.
Banten Governor Ratu Atut Chosiah said that if feasibility studies, which are to start in 2009 and take about three years, find the project viable, construction could begin in 2012 with the entire project expected to be completed in 2025.
Experts said the initiative, which was first proposed more than a decade ago, is technically possible even though the strait lies in one of the world’s most dangerous earthquake zones.
Sumatra has been rocked by several significant tremors in the past few months and more than 230,000 people were killed across the Indian Ocean when a huge quake that hit off the island in December 2004 triggered a tsunami.
Active volcanoes are also in the area, including Krakatoa, also in the Sunda Strait and about 50 km away, which killed tens of thousands of people when it erupted in 1883.
Wiratman Wangsadinata, an official from the consortium that is to construct the bridge, said planners would examine how the ocean, geology, earthquakes, climate and environment would affect the project.
“The biggest natural challenges are earthquakes and wind speed,” he was quoted as saying.
Lampung Governor Syachruddin Z.P. expressed the hope that the bridge would be able to alleviate chronic traffic congestion at the strait as well as significantly cut the journey time between the islands, which takes several hours by ferry.
About 20 million people crossed the strait in 2006, and the figure is forecast to double by 2020.