Port of Merak
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Port of Merak is a
seaport A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as ...
located in the Pulo Merak District of the city of Cilegon,
Banten Banten ( id, Banten; Sundanese: , romanized ''Banten'') is the westernmost province on the island of Java, Indonesia. Its capital city is Serang. The province borders West Java and the Special Capital Region of Jakarta on the east, the Ja ...
, on the northwestern tip of
Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mo ...
,
Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Gui ...
. The port and district are named after the
green peafowl The green peafowl or Indonesian peafowl (''Pavo muticus'') is a peafowl species native to the tropical forests of Southeast Asia. It has been listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List since 2009 because the global population has been declining ...
, which once lived in the region, but now only lives in the nearby
Ujung Kulon National Park Ujung Kulon National Park is at the westernmost tip of Java, in Banten province of Indonesia. It includes the volcanic island group of Krakatoa in Lampung province, and other islands including Panaitan, as well as smaller offshore islets such a ...
. The port is connected to
Jakarta Jakarta (; , bew, Jakarte), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta ( id, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta) is the capital city, capital and list of Indonesian cities by population, largest city of Indonesia. Lying on the northwest coa ...
via the Jakarta-Merak Toll Road and is also connected to the Bakauheni port which is located at the south of the Trans-Sumatran Highway.


History

In 1883, the original settlement was completely destroyed by a series of
tsunamis A tsunami ( ; from ja, 津波, lit=harbour wave, ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater ex ...
generated by the eruption of the Krakatoa volcano in the
Sunda Strait The Sunda Strait ( id, Selat Sunda) is the strait between the Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra. It connects the Java Sea with the Indian Ocean. Etymology The strait takes its name from the Sunda Kingdom, which ruled the western portion o ...
. The largest wave at Merak was estimated to be at least 41 m (135 ft) high. Approximately 2,700 people lost their lives, including virtually all of the town's inhabitants at that time.


Features

A large thermal electric power plant is located close to Merak where coal barges handle large quantities of coal. A new LPG jetty handles liquid gases for distribution in Banten province, tankage has been built at Merak. The town of Cilegon is about 15–20 km from Merak port. There is heavy truck traffic on the road from Cilegon to Merak so the road is often in poor condition. In downtown Cilegon there is a hypermart mall and some shanty shops. Karaoke bars for sailors are not hard to find.


Port operations

The port is a key transport link between Java and Sumatra and is a major service provider for the heavy passenger and commercial ferry traffic from Merak to
Bakauheni Bakauheni is a town in the southern part of the province of Lampung, Indonesia and is the largest and busiest port in the province, and also one of the busiest ports in Indonesia. Ferries carrying passengers and vehicles, particularly large truc ...
across the
Sunda Strait The Sunda Strait ( id, Selat Sunda) is the strait between the Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra. It connects the Java Sea with the Indian Ocean. Etymology The strait takes its name from the Sunda Kingdom, which ruled the western portion o ...
on the southern tip of
Sumatra Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...
. Ferry services are operated by
ASDP Indonesia Ferry PT ASDP Indonesia Ferry (Persero) is an Indonesian state-owned passenger ferry operator. The company is headquartered in Central Jakarta and has 29 branches in 4 regional offices across Indonesia. As of 2020, it operates 160 ships throughout Ind ...
. Growth in demand for ferry services has been rapid in recent years. The facilities at the port are now very badly overstretched. The ageing ferry fleet and poor supporting infrastructure are major restrictions on the port's efficiency. Long delays for passengers, buses and trucks waiting to board the ferries are common, especially at peak times of the year such as holiday periods when daily demand rises to over 2,000 cars and up to 500 buses per day. It is not unusual for trucks to bank up for 10 kilometers or more from the port on the Jakarta-Merak Toll Road and be held up in queues for two or three days. It is partly because of problems of this kind that consideration is being given to the very ambitious
Sunda Strait Bridge The Sunda Strait Bridge ( id, Jembatan Selat Sunda, ''JSS'', ''Jembatan Selsun'', sometimes referred to in English-language reports as the ''SSB'', Sundanese: ') was a planned road and railway megaproject between the two large Indonesian isl ...
project. Merak port also provides services for Indonesia's largest concentration of
petrochemical Petrochemicals (sometimes abbreviated as petchems) are the chemical products obtained from petroleum by refining. Some chemical compounds made from petroleum are also obtained from other fossil fuels, such as coal or natural gas, or renewabl ...
facilities located nearby along the Merak peninsula. More than 40 petrochemical plants operate near the seaport, an increase from two in 1990. In 2007
Shell Oil Shell plc is a British multinational oil and gas company headquartered in London, England. Shell is a public limited company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and secondary listings on Euronext Amsterdam and the New ...
announced plans to expand its Merak port operations with the construction of a $US52 million oil storage tank.


See also

*
List of Indonesian ports List of ports in Indonesia, sorted by location. Java * Port of Cirebon, Cirebon, West Java *Port of Merak, Banten * Port of Tanjung Priok, Jakarta *Ciwandan, Banten *Sunda Kelapa, Jakarta * Port of Patimban, Subang Regency, West Java *Port ...
*
Ministry of Transportation, Indonesia The Ministry of Transportation ( id, Kementerian Perhubungan), formerly Department of Transportation ( id, Departemen Perhubungan) is a government ministry responsible for the governance and regulation of transportation in Indonesia. The Mini ...
* Transport in Indonesia * Cilegon


References


Bibliography

*
Winchester, Simon Simon Winchester (born 28 September 1944) is a British-American author and journalist. In his career at '' The Guardian'' newspaper, Winchester covered numerous significant events, including Bloody Sunday and the Watergate Scandal. Winchester h ...
. '' Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883.'' New York: HarperCollins, 2003. {{ISBN, 0-06-621285-5 M Cilegon