05/03/2010 (Tempo Interactive), Jakarta - The government will increase crude palm oil transportation capacity in North Sumatra this year.

For this, the Director General of Railways Tundjung Inderawan has said that the government will start by increasing the bridge carrying capacity to be crossed by trains in the area.

Several bridges and rails in the Tebing Tinggi area to Belawan Harbor will be fixed to support the plan.

Right now the carrying capacity of several bridges is under 10 tons so that land transport modes, like trucks, are preferred more than train.

The directorate general of railways plans to increase carrying support in this region to increase transportation twofold.

Right now palm oil transported from Tebing Tinggi to Belawan Harbor using train only reaches 750,000 ton/year.

“So later we could carry 1.5 million tons of palm oil per year,” said Tundjung in Jakarta yesterday.