Bukit Asam Prepares 5 Railways Constructions

PT Tambang Batubara Bukit Asam, Tbk (PTBA), one of Indonesia’s largest coal miners, has committed to support national electricity projects. However, the projects have often been impeded by the inadequate transportation infrastructure from mining sites to coal terminals. Therefore, Bukit Asam has prepared the construction of 5 railways in Sumatera to transport 130 million tons of coal per year.

Milawarman, Operational Director of PTBA, revealed the plan during his presentation on the second day of Association of Indonesian Mining Professionals (PERHAPI in its Indonesian acronym) Conference & Workshop 2009 entitled “Save Indonesian Coal”. The event was held on 18-20 March 2009, at Hotel Gran Melia Jakarta.

PTBA has estimated a coal production of 225 million tons for the year 2009, of which 75 million tons would be allocated for domestic demand and 150 million tons for export market. The domestic allocation would be utilized to support the national electricity project, i.e. to supply the needs of coal-fired power plants, which required 61.7 million tons of coal per year.

“Nevertheless, the distribution of a large amount of coal for electricity projects have been impeded by the inadequate transportation infrastructure,” Milawarman explained. Hence, since early 2009, PTBA has prepared 5 railways constructions to transport 130 million tons of coal per year.

The 5 railways constructions currently being prepared are upgrading the existing Tanjung Enim-Lampung railway (20 million tons/year of capacity); building another line of Tanjung Enim-Lampung railway (20 million tons/year of capacity); building the Tanjung Enim-Tanjung Api-Api railway (50 million tons/year of capacity); building the Tanjung Enim-Bengkulu Pulau Baai (20 million tons/year of capacity); and building the Tanjung Enim-Bengkulu Limau (20 million tons/year of capacity).

Additionally, PTBA also planned to build 5 mine mouth power plants, located in Bangko Tengah – South Sumatera (4x600 MW), Banjarsari – South Sumatera (2x100 MW), Tanjung Enim – South Sumatera (3x10 MW), Peranap – Riau (2x10 MW), and Tarahan – Lampung (2x8 MW).