Bengkulu Harbour Project

Abstract

The Indonesian government is stimulating development of areas outside Java to increase the food production of the country and to decrease the population density on Java. Also the Bengkulu district on the west coast of Sumatra has to be developed. Important for development is a good infrastructure, and in an archipelago like Indonesia sea transport is cheap and easy. But harbours are necessary. Nowadays Bengkulu has a small harbour with an average depth of 1 m, and of course this harbour is too shallow for normal shiphandling. Hence most of the merchantships are loaded and unloaded on the roadstead. Further Bengkulu has two road connections with Palembang. These roads cross the Barisan mountainchain. They are in a poor condition. Improving these roads is difficult and expensive. There is no railway traffic in the Bengkulu district. The nearest railway station is Lubuklinggau, just on the other side of the Bukit Barisan. To build a railroad through the Bukit Barisan is even more difficult than building a road, and plans to give Bengkulu a railway-connection, are not realistic in the present circumstances. Improving harbour facilities is necessary, because loading and unloading ships on the poor protected roadstead is not always possible, specially not in the January-March monsoon period. Several possibilities are possible to improve the present situation: I) To improve the roadstead to assure protection agains waves. II) To improve the existing harbour in Bengkulu. III) To build a new harbour at another location, for exemple in the Pulau Bay. Pulau Bay is a bay, about 20 km south of Bengkulu, protected by a sand spit from the sea, and with a depth of 10 m. The natural entrance of this bay is the mouth of the Air Teluk, which has silted up and is not navigable.