''Berlin Nakroma'' is a

roll-on/roll-off Roll-on/roll-off (RORO or ro-ro) ships are cargo ships designed to carry wheeled cargo, such as cars, motorcycles, trucks, semi-trailer trucks, buses, trailers, and railroad cars, that are driven on and off the ship on their own wheels or using ...

passenger and cargo

ferry A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water taxi ...

owned and operated by the

Government of East Timor Politics of East Timor takes place in a framework of a unitary semi-presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the Prime Minister of East Timor is the head of government and the President of East Timor exercises the functions of ...

since 2007. A gift to East Timor from the

Federal Republic of Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated between ...

, she links

Dili Dili (Portuguese/Tetum: ''Díli'') is the capital, largest city of East Timor and the second largest city in Timor islands after Kupang (Indonesia). It lies on the northern coast of the island of Timor, in a small area of flat land hemmed in ...

, capital city of East Timor, with

Pante Macassar Pante Macassar ( pt, Pante Macassar, ) is a city in the Pante Macassar Administrative Post, Pante Macassar administrative post on the north coast of East Timor, to the west of Dili, the nation's capital. It has a population of 4,730 (Stand ...

in the East Timorese

exclave An enclave is a territory (or a small territory apart of a larger one) that is entirely surrounded by the territory of one other state or entity. Enclaves may also exist within territorial waters. ''Enclave'' is sometimes used improperly to deno ...

Oecusse Oecusse (also variously ''Oecussi'', ''Ocussi'', ''Oekussi'', ''Oekusi'', ''Okusi'', ''Oé-Cusse''), also known as Oecusse-Ambeno (; ) and formerly just Ambeno, officially the Special Administrative Region Oecusse-Ambeno (), is an exclave, mun ...

, and with

Atauro Island Atauro ( pt, Ilha de Ataúro, Tetum and Indonesian: ''Pulau Atauro'' or ''Ata'uro''), also known as Kambing Island ( id, Pulau Kambing), is an island and municipality ( pt, Município Ataúro, links=no, tet, Munisípiu Atauro, links=no or ) ...

Concept and construction

The Democratic Republic of East Timor is made up of three main parts, being the eastern half of

Timor Timor is an island at the southern end of Maritime Southeast Asia, in the north of the Timor Sea. The island is East Timor–Indonesia border, divided between the sovereign states of East Timor on the eastern part and Indonesia on the western p ...

, the exclave of Oecusse adjacent to the northwestern coast of Timor, and the island of Atauro. Passport-free transport between these three locations is possible only by sea. In 2002, the German

Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development The Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (german: Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung, ), abbreviated BMZ, is a cabinet-level ministry of the Federal Republic of Germany. Its main office is ...

(BMZ) commissioned a cooperation project to improve East Timorese living conditions by establishing a regular maritime passenger and goods transport connection between the three locations. From 2003 to 2006, a passenger ferry was chartered to operate such a connection. During that period, around 3,400 passengers used the service each month. In February 2007, a new ferry commissioned by the BMZ and financed by KfW Development Bank, the ''Nakroma'', was officially handed over to the East Timorese government to assume the operation of the service. The donated ferry was built in

Surabaya Surabaya ( jv, ꦱꦸꦫꦧꦪ or jv, ꦯꦹꦫꦨꦪ; ; ) is the capital city of the Provinces of Indonesia, Indonesian province of East Java and the List of Indonesian cities by population, second-largest city in Indonesia, after Jakarta. L ...

, Indonesia, by PT PAL. She is a roll-on/roll-off vessel long, and has a beam of . Her tonnage is and . She can carry up to 300 passengers (20 in first class, 149 in second class forward, and 131 in second class aft), and up to of cargo. In recognition of the success of the cooperation project, the ferry was renamed ''Berlin Nakroma''.

Service history

''Berlin Nakroma'' operates regular ferry services linking Dili with Pante Macassar in Oecusse, and with Atauro, using landing facilities in Dili and Oecusse that were upgraded as part of the cooperation project. The vessel flies an Indonesian flag with Jakarta as her port of registry, although an East Timorese ship registry was established in 2015 and was scheduled to be up and running by 2017. In July 2017, it was announced that the German government had donated €7.5 million to the East Timor Ministry of Public Works, Transport and Communication (MOPTK), for the building of a ''Berlin Nakroma II''. East Timor would be designing the new ship, while the funds from Germany would be used to build her.

References

External links

{{Portal bar, Asia, Germany, Transport Ferries of East Timor Ferries of Indonesia International development Ships built in Indonesia 2007 ships