The Transportation Ministry of Indonesia is all set to open nine non-commercial airports in the eastern parts of the country. The latest move has been decided upon in an attempt to improve domestic connectivity, as well as increase economic growth.
The air transportation director general of the ministry, Herry Bakti Gumay said that the new airports will be launched before the beginning of the Sail Raja Ampat event, which is scheduled for June 2014. Herry added, “The inauguration ceremony will be concentrated in Tual Baru and we are hoping to inaugurate these airports before the Sail Raja Ampat event commences”.
He went on to say that the annual Sail Indonesia event will be held in Raja Ampat, West Papua in order to develop tourism. The airport director of the ministry, Bambang Cahyono said that the government had invested about US$224 million from the state budget since 2007. The money was allotted to build 24 non-commercial airports across the archipelago.
The construction of the remaining 12 non-commercial airports is expected to complete in 2015. Bambang said that the total budget planned to build and developed airports in 2014 has reached 5.6 trillion rupiah, out of the 9.3 trillion rupiah which was allocated for the transportation directorate general of the ministry. Bambang went on to say that the development of air transportation in the eastern part of Indonesia is important as some of the places cannot be reached by boats during some seasons.
Photo Credits: Wikimedia
