AUSTRALIA SUPPORTS UPGRADING OF 78.9 KM ROADS IN SUMBAWA

Mataram, NTB, Feb 7 (ANTARA) - The Australian government supported the upgrading of a 78.9 km national road in Sumbawa Island, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) province with a budget of Rp441 billion.

Head of the NTB public works agency H. Jalal made the statement here Sunday when explaining the project which gets the Australian assistance.

"The project will run from Sumbawa Besar, Sumbawa regency to Banggo, Dompu regency," he said.

Jalal said the project was started by the end of last year and is scheduled for completion in 2011.

The project covers four packages under the Eastern Indonesian National Road Improvement Project (EINRIP) on Sumbawa island.

The hundreds of millions support cover one-way roads in four locations with a total length of 78.9 km and a width of six meters.

The four roads are from Sumbawa Besar (capital of Sumbawa regency) the by pass in the Sumbawa-Dompu border.
The budget for the Sumbawa Besar by pass reached Rp89 billion for a length of 11.5 km, and for Pal-4 at km 70 Plampang Rp152 billion with a length of 29.5 km.

The budget for the branch border, the Dompu agency had allocated Rp80 billion with a length of 14.9 km, and the budget for the branch road, had been set at Rp120 billion with a length of 23 km.

The EINRIP program is a form of support from the Australian government for infrastructure development in Eastern Indonesia, including NTB.

The Australian government support takes the form of a soft loan payable in 10 years but the assistance must be used only until June 2011.

The tender for the EINRIP project is open to international contractors, including those from Australia as the donor country.