East Java

Minister Wants Investigation into Suramadu Incident
Thursday, 15 July, 2004 | 13:14 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, East Java:Minister of Resettlement and Regional Infrastructure Soenarno has requested the police to immediately carry out an investigation into an incident in the Surabaya-Madura (Suramadu) bridge construction.

As reported earlier, construction of the Surabaya side of the Suramadu bridge collapsed on Tuesday afternoon (13/07) with six girders falling into the sea.

As the result of this incident, eight workers of the construction project were severely injured.

One of them, Syafut, eventually died even after being treated at the Dr. Soetomo hospital.

Soenarno made his request during a press conference held at the Suramadu bridge project office in Surabaya on Wednesday (13/07).

A similar request was also made by East Java governor, Imam Utomo, and East Java House of Representatives (DPRD) chairman, Tamat Anshori.

“Just let the police handle this case,” said Soenarno.

The legal measures that would be taken in this incident, Soenarno said, would depend on the result of the police investigation.

In addition, he would also carry out other measures, such as evaluating the Suramadu bridge project contractor.

“If a human-error element is found here, there will be an evaluation on the bridge contractor’s work,” said Soenarno.

He also urged the Department of Manpower to immediately carry out necessary measures for the victims and their families. ( Adi Mawardi - Tempo News Room)