Plans For Brunei-Indonesia Bus Route

Bandar Seri Begawan - Indonesia's Transportation Ministry has announced plans to open the first bus route connecting Indonesia and Brunei Darussalam, via Malaysia, by the end of this month following a surge in demand from migrant workers travelling to the oil-producing country on Borneo Island, Jakarta Post reported.

Sugihardjo, head of road transportation at the ministry, said Wednesday the route would connect Pontianak in West Kalimantan and Bandar Seri Begawan in Brunei Darussalam, through Kuching and Miri in Malaysia's northern part of Borneo.

"We will open the route after we successfully implemented the Pontianak-Kuching route in the early 1990s," he said. Sugihardjo said the new route would help passengers who frequently complained about expensive fares charged by unlicensed bus operations.

"We will run the new route because the number of passengers reaches between 200 and 250 per day," he said.

He said his office would appoint bus companies PT Damri and PT Setiajiwana Sakti to provide buses for the route.

"The buses will carry passengers from Pontianak to Bandar Seri Begawan twice a day," he said.

He said that Brunei Darussalam and Malaysia had not yet decided which companies they would appoint to supply buses for their legs of the route.

"Brunei will also carry passengers twice a day, while Malaysia will serve passengers once per day," he said.

Recently the Brunei Darussalam Motor Vehicle Licensing Board has released a tender for the management of Coach and Commercial Bus Service to manage the cross-border transportation between Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines.

Iskandar Abubakar, Director General for Indonesia's Land Transportation, said the three countries would hold a final meeting to discuss the new route on July 17 and 18.

"I hope we can reach agreement on the route opening during this final meeting," he said.  -- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin

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