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The national team in charge of handling the mud volcano
disaster in Sidoarjo, East Java, announced Friday that it would build
replacements for the neighboring turnpike, railroad track and gas
pipeline along one corridor so as to facilitate land acquisition.
The chairman of the team, Basuki Hadimuljono, said that the new
corridor would be 12 kilometers in length and 120 meters in width, and
would run to the west of the Surabaya-Gempol turnpike.
"We will begin acquiring the land in February," Basuki said.
Since May 29, when hot mud began gushing out of a Lapindo Brantas Inc.
gas exploration well, 2,284 houses in five villages have been
inundated, while more than 10,000 people have been displaced. In
addition, 64 hectares of sugarcane plantations and almost 300 hectares
of rice fields have been submerged in mud.
The mud has also forced the central government to close the key
Surabaya-Gempol turnpike, and the Surabaya-Malang and
Surabaya-Banyuwangi railway lines indefinitely. In November, a
Pertamina gas pipeline exploded at the site, killing 12 and injuring
dozens of others.
Regarding funding, the team said that it still needed more time to
calculate the full cost.
"We've set up a subcommittee to assess the cost of building a new
turnpike, rail line and gas pipeline. We hope they will finish their
calculations before the end of February," team spokesman Rudi
Novriyanto told The Jakarta Post.
He added that the team would cooperate with other relevant bodies,
including state oil and gas firm PT Pertamina for the gas pipeline,
state-owned construction firm PT Bina Marga for the turnpike and
state-owned rail operator PT Kereta Api Indonesia for the rail lines.
Even though the cost had yet to be fully computed, Rudi said the
government would foot the bill as the projects involved the state's
public service obligations.
Earlier, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono urged Lapindo to pay
compensation amounting to approximately Rp 2.5 trillion (US$276.8
million) to the affected residents, with 20 percent to be paid by early
March. In addition to compensation, Lapindo will also have to spend
some Rp 1.3 trillion on efforts to plug the mud volcano.
However, Lapindo said that the compensation sought was too high,
arguing that the company's total current assets would not be enough to
cover all the costs that had arisen as a consequence of the disaster.
Lapindo, which owns a 50 percent operating stake in the Brantas gas
block, is 99.9 percent owned by PT Energi Mega Persada (EMP), which in
turn is controlled by the family of Coordinating Minister for the
People's Welfare Aburizal Bakri.
The other half of the Brantas gas block is owned by PT Medco Energi
International and Santos of Australia, with 32 percent and 18 percent
stakes respectively.
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