REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- President Joko Widodo held a limited cabinet meeting here on Tuesday to discuss railway development in Kalimantan.

"Regarding the railway development in Kalimantan, we have two big programs," Transportation Minister Ignasius Jonan said after the meeting.

The first program is development of public railway from Pontianak in West Kalimantan to Balikpapan in East Kalimantan, he said.

"If possible, it will be extended right till the country's borders with Malaysia in the West and the East," he said.

Jonan said the government had also received proposals from private parties to develop special railway lines.

"Private parties have submitted an application for a permit to develop several special railway lines in Central Kalimantan and also East Kalimantan. We are still processing ways to simplify the licensing procedures for them, in case they are needed," he said.

According to the data of the Ministry of Transportation, the railway development program in Kalimantan for the 2015-2019 period covered two lines, namely one from the western border to Pontianak, Sanggau, Palangkaraya and Banjarmasin stretching up to 1,192 kilometers and the other from the eastern border to Tanjung Redep, Lubuk Tutung, Samarinda, Balikpapan, Tanjung and Banjarmasing, extending up to 1,236 kilometers.

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