Logistics Lines in West Papua Now Connect Directly to Java

Logistics lines in West Papua are now directly connected to the island of Java. This is because the Ministry of Transportation (Kemenhub) has added a sea toll route to Kaimana Port, West Papua with a new route, the T30 route, which will serve the Tanjung Perak - Kaimana - Tanjung Perak route.

The addition of this route is expected to support goods distribution activities and encourage the economy in remote and underdeveloped areas. In addition, the opening of sea access also aims to reduce price disparities (differences) between regions in Indonesia. This was conveyed by the Acting Director General of Sea Transportation, Arif Toha.

"The Sea Highway is expected to help smooth distribution supplies in the area, as well as encourage the economy of local residents in order to optimize the return load later," said Arif, Thursday (6/1/2022).

According to Arif, Kaimana Port itself has an existing pier with a length of 123 x 8 meters. This wharf can accommodate ships with a standard capacity of up to 14,000 DWT and a depth of -8 mLWS.

The existence of this new route is contained in the Decree of the Director General of Sea Transportation (DJPL) Number KP-DJPL 8 of 2022 which is valid from January 1, 2022 to December 31, 2022. Whereas previously, the sea toll route to Kaimana Port had been served by route T27 with the Merauke route. - Dobo - Elat - Tual - Kaimana - Biak - Serui - Nabire - Elat - Merauke.

In addition to adding new routes, the Ministry of Transportation has also added a stopover port and changed the base port on the T-11, T-19, T-22, T-23, T-24, T-25, and T-26 sea toll routes. Thus, 34 sea toll routes are now available to support logistics distribution activities and solve price disparities in Indonesia.

The Presence of the Sea Highway Successfully Supports Local Food Security in Papua

The Sea Highway Program has succeeded in reducing the price disparity for several commodities. However, President Joko Widodo's flagship program still needs optimization in order to have a wider impact, especially for regional governments in Eastern Indonesia.

Meanwhile, at the Coordinating Meeting for Optimizing the Sea Toll Program at the Bina Graha Building, Jakarta, Friday (16/4), the Director of Traffic and Sea Transportation of the Ministry of Transportation, Antoni Arif Priadi, said that the implementation of the Sea Toll program had experienced a significant increase since it was implemented in 2016.

Until this year, the number of sea toll transit ports increased to 103 points from 31 points in 2016. Likewise, the number of ship fleets increased from 6 ships in 2016 to 30 ships in 2021, and the number of routes increased from 6 routes in 2016 to 30 routes in 2021.

Meanwhile, the existence of the Depapre Sea Toll Road in Jayapura Regency is also felt to be very helpful for local food security in Papua Province. Head of the Papua Province Agriculture and Food Service, Samuel Siriwa, said the operation of the Depapre sea toll road really helped the government, especially in facilitating local food distribution activities from one area to another in Papua.

One of the problems faced in Papua Province is the problem of food distribution which is difficult and uneven. The reason is, surplus food production in one area has difficulty being distributed to other areas and takes a long time. So that the surplus can only be distributed to the surrounding area. But now the production surplus that has occurred, for example in Merauke, has been able to be distributed evenly in the Papua region.

“This is because rice was initially difficult to distribute or took a long time to be distributed, now there is a solution. With this sea toll, it is hoped that the Merauke rice will be well distributed in the Papua region," said Samuel Siriwa.

Meanwhile, the distribution of rice from Merauke Regency has also increased the supply of rice for the Papuan people at the Bulog Warehouse. Bulog Papua stated that the rice shipped from the surplus in Merauke Regency amounted to about 400 tons. With the addition of rice from Merauke, the supply of rice for Papua reached 2,200 tons because the initial stock at the Bulog warehouse was only 1,800 tons.

SOURCE: https://www.jagapapua.com/article/detail/6988/jalur-logistik-di-papua-barat-kini-terambung-direct-ke-jawa