Postponement of several projects during Covid-19 pandemic

Last updated on May 7th, 2021 at 09:03 am

The COVID-19 pandemic has been affected to several industries that have to postpone their projects. The construction of Phase 2A of the MRT railroad project starting from Thamrin to Monas has been eventually postponed.

MRT JAKARTA CONSTRUCTION

The MRT Jakarta Managing Director, William Sabandar, said the project is delayed for three months, which Jakarta has also been enforcing Large-Scale Social Restrictions (PSBB) that hindered the company to bring resources, which some of them are departed from Japan.

“We postpone it because it is impossible to mobilize heavy work in this current condition,” said William via an online release on Wednesday, April 29.

The company is also determined to suppress the construction budget given the current situation that possibly increases the cost. Additionally, the purchase of train raw materials must be in Yen, William added.

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However, William ensured that the land acquisition process is still afoot, claiming his side has signed a consortium contract with Shimizu Corporation Indonesia and PT Adhi Karya in February 2020.

Because of postponement, phase 2A of the MRT Jakarta project that was initially slated to start on March 1 and complete on December 31, 2020, is revised to commence on June 3, 2020, and expected to finish on March 30, 2025.

Railroad Construction Project

Therefore, the auction process will be delayed that comprises CP-202 package of the Harmoni-Mangga Besar railroad construction project, CP-203 package of Glodok-Kota, CP204 package of Kota-Ancol Barat, CP205 package of signaling and rail systems procurement, and CP2016 package of the procurement of 12 train sets.

Meanhile, the Ministry of Public Works and Public Housing (PUPR) has also postponed the construction of a number of infrastructure projects in 2020.

PUPR Minister Basuki Hadimuljono said the delay was in line with the budget reallocation by the Ministry of PUPR to deal with the spread of the coronavirus (Covid-19).

The ministry is reallocating a budget of Rp 44.58 trillion for handling the Corona virus (COVID-19). Of the total overall budget in 2020 of Rp 120 trillion.

POSTPONED PROJECTS

A number of projects will be postponed and their completion will have to be delayed.

First, funds come from contractual packages that have not yet been auctioned, such as the D.I Irrigation Network Rehabilitation. Baro Raya in Pidie Regency, Bridge Replacement Sp. Cokroaminoto – Sp. Tohpati in Denpasar, and Pariaman City Waterfront Area Management in West Sumatra. The project will be postponed to 2021.

Second, the completion of several projects had to be canceled this year. These projects include the construction of the Way Sekampung Dam in Lampung, the Jragung Dam in Central Java, the Temef Dam in East Nusa Tenggara, the Kuningan Eastern Ring Road Construction in West Java, the Brebes-Tegal Ring Road Construction in Central Java, and the optimization of the city wastewater pipeline in Medan North Sumatra.

Another Indonesian state-owned company, PT PLN (Persero) has established project criteria to be continued in the midst of a corona pandemic. Based on the results of the evaluation of a number of power plant projects will be postponed but there are some that continue. This is responding to the impact of the corona outbreak on the national electricity demand which dropped so significantly due to lower electricity demand due to office and business restrictions, and the commercial and manufacturing industries. This caused to disrupt PLN’s finances.

“COVID has impacted the power and utility segment. One of the most dominant sales kwh has decreased significantly. This is due to lower electricity demand due to office and business restrictions, and the commercial and manufacturing industries,” said Zulkifli Zaini in an online meeting with Commission VII Jakarta, Wednesday.

PLN’s Managing Director, Zulkifli Zaini, said in the General Plan for Electricity Supply (RUPTL) projecting demand growth of up to 8 percent. But due to corona outbreaks, the current electricity consumption growth is only around 4.5 percent. Therefore, for the sake of efficiency, several electricity projects have had to be postponed.

“COVID has impacted the power and utility segment. One of the most dominant sales kwh has decreased significantly. This is due to lower electricity demand due to office and business restrictions, and the commercial and manufacturing industries,” said Zulkifli Zaini in an online meeting with Commission VII Jakarta, Wednesday (4/22/2020).

Large-scale infrastructure development such as power plants, transmissions and substations is carried out with priority scale by paying attention to its urgency.

As for projects whose priority scale can be postponed, implementation will be postponed.