Batam, Batamnews - Batam Government postponed the purchase of official ships for inter-island transportation. The procurement of this official ship was previously included in the budget refocusing.

The Mayor of Batam, Muhammad Rudi said that the proposed procurement of official ships was due to the fact that the existing official ships were quite old.

The ship is Batam 1 which is more than 20 years old. "The material is still using fiber, not using aluminum," said Rudi, Thursday (19/8/2021).

There are concerns when it was used during bad weather, especially during high waves.

"If the waves are high and the speed is high, the ship can break. So it can be dangerous," he said.

The procurement of the new official ship was proposed in 2019. However, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the proposal was also finally withdrawn. However, the document still appears.

"The limited budget, judging from the level of urgency, can still be postponed until financial conditions return to good," he said.

Rudi emphasized that there was no procurement of new official ships whose value was estimated at Rp 15 billion.

Not only the procurement of new official ships, but his party has also postponed several plans to focus on dealing with Covid-19.

Batam's APBD is said to still have a deficit of more than Rp. 200 billion.

"In the meantime, we are still on duty using the old ship, although sometimes we also charter ships if there is a call to the province," he said.