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Infrastructure Ministry assumes steering role in giant sea wall plan

by ID_admin••0

Jakarta (ANTARA) – Coordinating Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono (AHY) said his ministry would serve as the steering committee for the newly formed North Coast Java (Pantura) Authority, which oversees the giant sea wall project along Java’s northern coastline.”As far as I’m concerned, the Coordinating Ministry for Infrastructure and Regional Development will be a steering committee in this matter,” he told the media at the Presidential Palace in Jakarta on Monday.He underlined that the government established the Pantura Authority specifically to manage the northern shoreline more effectively, including through the execution of the giant sea wall plan.According to him, the newly formed agency would review and refine existing concepts and ideas for the project and adapt them to current conditions.The project was first unveiled in 1995, with a feasibility study conducted in 2020. However, it lacked significant progress until President Prabowo Subianto declared it a national priority.AHY noted that his ministry and the Pantura Authority would coordinate with the Ministry of Investment and Downstreaming and the Danantara Investment Management Agency to secure and channel financial support for the initiative.The minister made the remarks after President Prabowo inaugurated Deputy Minister of Marine Affairs and Fisheries Didit Herdiawan Ashaf as head of the Pantura Authority, alongside Darwin Trisna Djajwinata and Suhajar Diantoro as deputy heads, at the palace on Monday morning.After the oath-taking ceremony, State Secretary Minister Prasetyo Hadi confirmed that the president formed the Pantura Authority primarily to construct the giant sea wall, projected to stretch around 700 kilometers from Banten to East Java.He explained that the agency is tasked with planning, developing, and managing the project to safeguard roughly 20 million residents along the coastline from worsening land subsidence and recurring tidal floods.