Summary

Indonesia's Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs, Luhut Binsar Panjaitan, has decided that the North Bali Airport will be built on land, rather than offshore. Two companies, PT Bandara Internasional Bali Utara (BIBU) Panji Saki and PT Pembangunan Bali Mandiri (Pembari), are competing for the project, which is estimated to cost IDR6.3tn ($460m). Luhut said that the financing for the airport would not come from the state budget. The decision to build the airport on land resolves uncertainty for one of the investors, PT Bandara Bali Utara Panji Saki, which had planned to build the airport offshore.
 
BIBU had planned to build the airport in Buleleng Regency with an investment of $20bn, or IDR27tn. The company had already studied the advantages and disadvantages of building the airport offshore. If the airport is built on land, the most difficult obstacle will be the land acquisition process. In addition, there are 33 temples and 21 sites of Balinese community belief within a 600-hectare radius of the designated location in Buleleng.
 
Although building the airport on land is cheaper, BIBU has its own calculations in terms of effectiveness and efficiency. "The calculation is indeed cheaper if built on land, but if seen from the process, above the sea is faster, maybe only three years, if built on land the land acquisition process may not be completed in ten years while land prices continue to rise every year," said I Made Mangku, President Director of PT BIBU.