Saturday, October 18, 2008

Malacca to introduce Ro-Ro ferry service to Dumai

ALOR GAJAH, FRI:


The Malacca government has offered KJ Waja Engineering (M) Sdn Bhd, a shipping engineering company, a contract to build a "ro-ro" (roll-on/roll-off) ferry to ply the route between Kuala Linggi, near here, to Dumai in Sumatera, Indonesia.

Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Ali Rustam said the service was among issues discussed during the last Indonesia-Malaysia-Thailand Growth Triangle (IMT-GT) meeting.

"Riau Governor Muhammad Rusli Zainal often asks when the ro-ro facility in Melaka will be completed because the same facility was being built in Dumai," he told reporters after launching KJ Waja Engineering (M) Sdn Bhd ship dock in Kuala Linggi, today.

Mohd Ali hoped the ro-ro facility would be able to operate next year to allow Malaysians to visit Sumatera, an vice-versa, and bring along their cars.

The travelling time for a passenger ferry from Melaka to Dumai takes an hour and 50 minutes, while a flight from Melaka to Pekan Baru, using the Fokker 50, takes 45 minutes.

Meanwhile, Mohd Ali instructed the Alor Gajah Land and Mineral Office to deploy its officers at the Kuala Linggi port to carry out round-the-clock checks to prevent sand and rocks smuggling from the port.

He said the Malacca government had never allowed sand and rocks from the state to be brought to other states.

"They (sand and rocks) must be used in Malacca; this is to safeguard the state's construction industry and prevent an increase in costs," he said.