REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, BALIKPAPAN -- Balikpapan, a coastal city in the East Kalimantan province, plans to develop a coastal road stretching up to 7.5 kilometers for up to Rp3.2 trillion.

"The physical development of the project will start in January 2016, the head of Coastal Road Development Control Agency (BPCR), Sri Soetantinah, said on Saturday (14/3).

She said the project is expected to be completed within eight to nine years, but the Minister of Land and Spatial Order, Ferry Mursyidan Baldan, has directed that it be completed sooner, which has been accepted by Balikpapan Mayor Rizal Effendi.

Effendi has promised to finish the project within five years.

The coastal road to be developed will be 50 meters wide in addition to a 25 meter-wide pedestrian crossing.

"We are providing a special facility for pedestrians and will choose the tram as an energy-efficient mass transport," Soetantinah said.

She said the road will connect the Semayang port in the south to the Sepinggan airport in the north.

In March this year, the city administration had already found investors for developing seven of eight segments of the project.

They are PT Sugico, which is assigned to carry out Segment I, PT Pandega Segment III, PT Helindo Segment IV, PT Wulandari Bangun Laksana Segment V, PT Karunia Segement VII and PT Aviko Segment VIII.

Segment II will be developed by the city administration, while Segment IV will be handled by PT Daksa Kalimantan Putra and is currently still undergoing the evaluation stage.

Soetantinah pointed out that there will be an office complex for the city administration and a green area for the community will be built in the segment, which will be developed by the city administration.

Green areas will also be developed in all segments by investors in the project, using the 2016 regional budget, she added.

Segment I will be named Tower Park, Segment II Lagoon and Forest Park, Segment III the New Civic Center, Segment IV Old Down Town, Segment V New Down Town, Segment VI Techno Park and Segment VIII, which is to be developed by PT Aviko as an artificial island outside Banua Patra Coast, will be named Small Paradise.

She added that investors are actually only continuing with projects that have already been constructed by them so far.

PT Wulandari, for example, actually operates a shopping mall and an office complex in the Balikpapan Super Block. Segment V is actually meant only further development of the project and has already been carried out since 2005.

PT Pandega-Agung Podomoro will develop Segment III, only as an extension of the Balikpapan Plaza shopping center project's seaward, she said.

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