Land and Water Transportation in Jayapura

A few years ago, air routes became a transportation mainstay in Papua and West Papua. Air transportation was mainly used to transfer people and goods, including basic needs. Meanwhile, land infrastructure or roads in most of Papua’s areas were inadequate. Since air transportation was the only option, the distribution cost was very high, especially for remote districts. The high transportation cost caused goods in Papua and West Papua expensive. Therefore, transportation infrastructure has become the main priority for Papua’s development. 

In 2017 in Jayapura, locals were also facing constraints in transportation means, including public transportation. Thankfully, now there are many new and improved land and water transportation in Jayapura. Here are some of them. 

Entrop Bus Station in Jayapura

Entrop bus station is one of the bus stations in Jayapura, besides Mesran bus station and Youtefa bus station. These bus stations serve inter-city, cross-villages, and inter-regions transportation. To optimize the bus stations, good infrastructure and management have been conducted in this terminal. Jayapura’s city mayor, Benhur Tomi Mano, announced in November 2020 that Entrop bus station has already operated. 

According to Benhur, all taxi or inter-city transportation, including buses, will be through this terminal. Since the terminal type A in Entrop bus station has worked, the Entrop terminal in front of Papua Trace Center supermarket or PTC will no longer function.

The manager and person in charge of the Entrop Jayapura type A terminal, Yonas Kapisa, revealed that the work of this 2.5 hectares bus station was started in 2018 and cost Rp30 billion from the Ministry of Transportation budget. 

Water Bus Dock at Lake Sentani

Papua province and West Papua’s rapid transportation infrastructure includes a water bus dock at Lake Sentani, Jayapura. The ministry of Transportation (Kemenhub) carry out the water bus at Lake Sentani as part of the nine units’ construction of Ro-Ro ferry boats and four units of water buses at Lake Sentani in Jayapura and Lake Toba in North Sumatra. 

Director-General of Land Transportation, Budi Setiyadi, explained that the construction also supports the upcoming National Sports Week (PON) 2020 in Papua and West Papua. Overall, Lake Sentani’s water bus can accommodate one hundred passengers. The water bus itself is a prototype boat and become the first boat built by the Directorate General of Land Transportation.

Besides supporting the PON event, this water bus dock will certainly help people who live around Lake Sentani. 

Water Bus at the National Border Post (PLBN) in Skouw

The next land and water transportation in Jayapura is water buses at the National Border Post (PLBN) in Skouw. The government of Papua province and West Papua wishes this water buses will also assist PON 2021 which will be held in October this year. 

These water buses become a great addition to Holtekamp bridge in Jayapura. Holtekamp Bridge was inaugurated by President Joko Widodo in October 2019.  This bridge spans over Youtefa Bay in Jayapura for 733 meters. This bridge shortens the travel time from Jayapura city to Muara Tami District to the Kouw State Border Post (PLBN). The distance that previously took two hours long, now only takes twenty minutes.        

That was brief info about land and water transportation in Jayapura. The Indonesian government wishes that the rapid infrastructure growth in Papua province and West Papua will reduce logistics costs and improve logistics efficiency. The development in both provinces is based on Presidential Regulation No. 17/2019 concerning the Acceleration of Welfare Development in Papua Province and West Papua Province.