Directory_and_Chronicle_1917 — Page 1511

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NETHERLANDS-INDIA

The harbour area is amply provided with approach ways and open spaces and linked up with the existing railway system. On the construction of the harbour works proper and the various godowns a sum of inore than Fls. 3,000,000 is to be spent.

Soerabaja.-Plans were drawn up several years ago for providing Soerabaja with wharves capable of accommodating ocean-going vessels, so that these could obtain direct communication with the shore. The work was carried out expeditiously at a cost altogether of Fls. 1,350,000. In the meantime new harbour works were planned and adopted to cot about Fls. 16,000,000. A new pier has been built in the sea from the mouth of the Kali Mas in a westerly direction, roughly parallel with the coast line. Its front coincides approximately with the natural channel and has a depth of 13-20 metres at low water. The pier has a length on the sca side of 1,200 metres and a breadth of 200 metres, and is capable of berthing ships with a draught of up to 9 metres. A harbour basin has been formed approximately 900 metres square, or 81 hectares in area. This harbour basin will be rendered accessible for ships of 9 metres draught for a space of 250 metres behind the pier; the remaining portion is provisionally intended for the use of lighters, which can moor alongside a quay on the south side of the basin. In the deep part of the harbour a sufficient area of water is devoted to the accommodation and workin. of two drydocks of 3,000 and 14 000 tons capacity respectively, with a view to which the depth here is to be increased. When the works are completed there will be available 2,360 metres of wharf for ships of 9 metres draught and 370 metres of quay along the lengthened bank of the Kali Màs projecting into the sea for small ocean-going steamers and vessels of lesser draught, while on the south side of the basin there will be 300 metres of quay-wall for the use of lighters. The harbour equipment is to include two floating steam-cranes with a lifting capacity of 25 and 50 tons, respectively. In 1916 a new extension was commenced on the western side of the harbour consisting of 430 metres quay to be used as coal wharf for ships with a draught of 10 metres. This last work will cost about Fls. 3,500,000.

Tjilat jap. -Tjilatjap, the only harbour of importance on the south coast of Java, is situated on a tongue of land, bounded on the East by the Indian Ocean and on the West by the river Donan, in the estuary of which there is sufficient depth of water (7.6 metres at low tide) for large steamers. Owing to the protection provided by the island of Noesa Kembangan, lying off the coast here, this estuary offers a safe anchorage, where the breakers of the Indian Ocean are not felt. As a result principally of the growth of the sugar industry and the increasing development of the hinterland, the volume of shipping dealt with at Tjilatjap has increased very considerably during the last few years, and the need has been felt for more berthing accommodation for ships and for greater depth of water along the pier. Consequently after an inquiry in 1910 it was decided to lengthen the pier northwards by 127 netres, so that now there is 535 metres of pier, while, in order to obtain the necessary increased depth of water alongside, the pier is partly to be broadened to 15 metres. On completion of these works it will be possible for ships drawing 8 metres to berth alongside the northern part of the pier even at low tide, and preparations are being made for further extensions, in addition to which dredging is being performed in the mouth of the river Donau.

Island of Sumatra

Padang. Since the opening of the Government Railway line to the Padang Hinterland in about the year 1885 Emmahaven has become the chief port of Padang. This harbour is situated in the northern portion of Koninginne Bay, which is formed by the tongues of land projecting into the sea in a south-westerly direction. At right angles to a coral bank, which is exposed at ebbtide and on which a small wharf has Leen constructed, is a breakwater, 260 metres long, lying approximately parallel with the shore, while the harbour on the other side is enclosed by a break water, 900 metres long. These two breakwaters and the shore forin a basin, within which are the harbour works proper.

These were constructed at a cost of more than Fls. 3.300.000. In 1893 attention was already drawn to the fact that the room available at the loading and the discharging wharves was no longer adequate for the increasing shipping traffic. In order to obtain furthe berthing accommodation for sailing vessels, two short piers, 9.6 metres broad and 10 and 1 metres long, respectively, were built, besides a small pier for discharging dynamite. These piers project from the long breakwater. The lack of sufficient space for ocean vessels of greater draught led in 1911 to an extension and improvement of the harbour. The depth of water within the harbour was increased to 8.5 metres at low tide, while the three existing screw-pile wharves, 85 metres long, are to be lengthened and new coaling mechanical installations and other complementary works are in ..course of construction.