UAE firm in Indonesia rail deal

Dubai: Construction of a 140-kilometre railway in Indonesia, initiated by RAK Minerals and Metals Investments (RMMI) will start next March, a top official said.

"This is part of our $1 billion (Dh3.67 billion) investment plan in which India's state-owned National Aluminium Co (Nalco) will invest $4 billion to build a 500,000-tonne aluminium smelter and power plant in East Kalimantan," Madhu Koneru, Managing Director of RMMI and Executive Vice Chairman of MEC Holdings, told Gulf News in a phone interview.

The first phase of the development programme will involve the commissioning of a 17 million metric tonnes per annum (mmta) coal transportation and handling facility by 2012, while the civil and track work will be completed for a 60 mmta capacity.

MEC Holdings, the venture overseeing all of Ras Al Khaimah and Dubai-based Trimex's Indonesian projects, is investing $1 billion to build the railway and associated facilities on Indonesia's part of Borneo island.