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Rudiantara Inspects Palapa Ring in Papua, Outlines Challenges

Jayawijaya | April 30, 2019 Minister of Communication and Informatics (Menkominfo) Rudiantara inspected the construction progress of the East Palapa Ring project in Jayawijaya Regency, Papua Province, Tuesday (April 30, 2019).

Using a helicopter, Rudiantara directly monitored the construction progress of the Palapa Ring tower located in the hilly area of ​​the region. Rudiantara revealed a number of difficulties, ranging from access to material transportation for the towers to potential security threats.

"I inspected the overall construction; it's 96 percent complete," Rudiantara told detikcom at Wamena Airport, Jayawijaya.

"It's important to remember that the eastern Palapa Ring is divided into two parts: NTT, Maluku, and West Papua. These are 100 percent complete and ready for testing. In Papua province, it's only 94 percent complete. Why? We need to look at the challenges. In Papua alone, there are 52 locations with varying levels of difficulty," he said.

Rudiantara gave the example of transporting water for the tower construction, which must be transported by helicopter to hilly areas where water is scarce.

"One helicopter lift can carry up to 4.5 tons of water, taken from Wamena and then transported to the project construction sites. You can imagine the difficulties," he said.

Rudiantara mentioned another issue, namely security threats. However, the Indonesian National Armed Forces (TNI) and the Indonesian National Police (Polri) are directly involved in securing the construction process in several areas prone to disruption, particularly in the interior and mountainous areas of Papua Province (Sugapa, Ilaga, Kota Mulia, Karubaga, Tiom, Kobakma, Elelim, Wamena, Kenyam, Sumohai, Dekai, Oksibil), as well as several other regencies/cities in Papua and West Papua, such as Sorong, Fef, Aifat, Teminabuan, Bintuni, and Anggi.

In addition to these areas, there are also areas in Manokwari, Tanggung, Raisei, Ransiki, Biak, Numfor, Sorendiweri, Serui, Botawa, Nabire, Botawa, Kigamani, Tigi, Timika, Enarotali, Agats, Merauke, Keppi, Tanah Merah, Waropko, Jayapura, Waris, Sarmi, and Burmeso.

"So far, there have been no significant disruptions, comrades." "The Indonesian National Armed Forces (TNI) and the Indonesian National Police (Polri) are fully involved in guarding these vulnerable areas. Another issue is land. "In Papua, unlike other places, there is a term for customary land that cannot be simply taken away. We must approach traditional, religious, and community leaders," he said.

Despite facing various difficulties during construction, Rudiantara ensured that the Palapa Ring internet backbone construction process would be completed by the middle of this year. Once completed, internet access will be evenly distributed throughout eastern Indonesia.

"The challenges are very unique, but we, a nation of fighters, never give up on developing Indonesia, especially in narrowing the gap, especially in internet access throughout Indonesia," he said.

"The target is for completion by mid-year. Integration with the central and western regions will take nine months. Construction will be completed by July at the latest, followed by integration and operation," said the man familiarly known as Chief RA.



News & photo sources: inet.detik.com