PT DAHANA (Persero) performed initial blasting at quarry project of Tibar Bay Port in Dili, Timor Leste. The blasting was successful with excellent fragmentation and displacement adjusted to the transportation system to be used. The good work was well appreciated by the attendees during the initial blasting ceremony held on Friday, July 12, 2019 at Tibar Bay. The ceremony as also attended by Minister of Defense and Home Affairs and some other minister of Democratic Republic of Timor Leste, China Harbour Engineering Company and other stakeholders. Nobel Prize Winner for Humanity of Timor Leste, Ramos Horta was also there at the ceremony.

Construction of Timor Leste’s infrastructure started to flourish along with the government’s wish to improve the country’s economic growth. Dili, the capital city of Timor Leste has significantly showed a lot of improvement. Many embassy buildings are seen long the coastal area of Pantai Kelapa. The city also has a 12-storey ministerial office building located at Aitarak Laran.

One of big infrastructure projects being constructed in Timor Leste is the Tibar Bay Port Dili. The construction is commissioned to China Harbour Engineering Company which will be completed in 2022 and dubbed as the biggest container handling (international) harbour in Timor Leste. The existing harbor will serve as a passenger and tourism harbor.

The opportunity was benefitted by the explosive production State-owned Enterprise (SOE), PT DAHANA (Persero). The national company with head-offices located in Subang, West Java, tied the contract for supply of explosives for quarry blasting in preparation for infrastructure at the Tibar Bay.

PT DAHANA (Persero) works in collaboration with the local company Incanto Weste Unipessoal LDA for the blasting project. The collaboration has made it possible for DAHANA to deliver explosives to Timor Leste in three shipments.

“We import DAHANA’s explosives from our quarry project at Tibar. The explosives consist of dayagel, electric and non-electric detonator, detonating cord an ammonium nitrate,” explained Joanico Jerenimo, President Director of Incanto Weste Unipessoal LDA.

President Director of DAHANA (Persero) Budi Antono, who also attending the blasting ceremony, confirmed the import. “Yes, we export explosives to Timor Leste for this quarry project. The explosive delivery is made in three shipments, each with 11 containers with the contract value of US$ 420,000,” added Budi Antono.

PT DAHANA (Persero) has been chosen for the blasting work by Timor Leste government for its solid reputation. “We trust DAHANA as we believe that DAHANA is a professional Indonesia’s State-owned Enterprise with the largest facility and production in South East Asia, and for the fact that handling of hazardous explosives should be in the hands of an expert like DAHANA,” said Joanico Jerenimo.

To strengthen the collaboration of the two parties, , Dahana – Incanto signed a memorandum of understanding which grants Incanto the rights to be sole distributor of DAHANA’s commercial explosive products in Timor Leste. The collaboration is fully supported by Timir Leste Minister of Defense and Home Affairs, Filomeno da Paixão de Jesus. According to Mr Jesus, distribution of explosives as hazardous materials should be tightly regulated.

“Therefore, distribution of explosives in Timor Leste should be under control of an official company which is an expert in the given matter,” he said in a meeting in Likisa. (11/07).

As it is popularly known, PT DAHANA is a state-owned enterprise (SOE) of Indonesia operating in manufacture of commercial and military explosives. DAHANA has business lines of Drilling and Blasting Services, Explosives Manufacturing and Related Services.

DAHANA’s General Mining Sector offers blasting services for general mining of coal, gold and nickel; Quarry and Construction Sector for blasting of andesite rocks, cement, granite and other construction projects such as tunnels, highways, port and power generation; Oil and Gas Sector provides services in blasting for oil and gas perforation exploitation; and the Defence Related sector, which provides military explosives such as Dayagel Sivor and so forth. Dahana also offers blasting permit arrangement, explosive mobilization and warehouse.

Apart from Tibar Bay Port, another blasting project in Timor Leste will be extension and development of Dili Airport to be scheduled this year. Timor Leste government has also planned to upgrade the roads at border of Timor Leste and Republic Indonesia using hotmix, meaning that there will be rocky hills to be removed in support to construction of the infrastructure. Dahana’s blasting technique provides solutions for swifter and more efficient execution of the construction project.

Opportunities in quarry and construction sector are also widely open as revealed by Abdul Haris Atbaro, General Manager of General Mining Division 2 PT DAHANA (Persero). He said that Timor Leste’s geographical condition with hilly contours leaves with a huge potential for more construction blasting work.
“Timor Leste government is now very serious with their infrastructure development following the civilian warm that ended in 2001. The country is in need of large amount of explosive for speedier construction of roads and other infrastructure,” explained Abdul Haris.

DAHANA’s collaboration with Timor Leste is not the first time. In 2013, DAHANA exported explosives to Polícia Nacional de Timor-Leste (PNTL). The exported Dayagel Sivor explosives were used for eradicating explosives left-over from the World War II and Timor Timur conlflict.

Before penetrating into Timor Leste, DAHANA previously exported explosives to Australia. In Agustus 2019, eight containers of explosives will be shipped to Australia for the second shipment. The state-owned enterprises will also export explosives to Japan and Fiji soon. (jjs)