State Electricity Company’s (PLN’s) East-North Kalimantan office electrified Ambalat Beach’s tourist attractions in Kutai Kartanegara District and donated Rp560 million (some US$39.2 thousand) for beach development.
“Apart from electrification of the beach area, we also disbursed Rp560 million worth of funding under our CSR (community social responsibility) program for the development of public facilities and empowerment of residents at the beach,” General Manager of the East-North Kalimantan branch of PLN Saleh Siswanto stated on Friday. The funding had been handed over to Deputy District Head of Kutai Kartanegara District Rendi Solihin earlier on Wednesday (Sept 1).
Under the company’s CSR program, PLN contributed to the construction of a welcome gate, prayer rooms, a bridge, a meeting hall, and gazebos at the local beach. The company also provided 10 stalls at the beach for local entrepreneurs.
“PLN’s CSR program aims to empower local residents,” Siswanto noted. Apart from beach facilities, PLN also assisted local residents through providing electrical installations to electrify the beach area. PLN had installed 900 meters of low-voltage grid, erected 30 power poles, increased the local electric transformer capacity by 50 kVa, and connected electric cable to residents’ houses and street lights at the beach area, he revealed.
According to the Tourism Office of Kutai Kartanegara District, improvement to the beach area will help to better cater to 6,700 tourists, from the earlier capacity of 1,800 daily tourists, especially when Ambalat Beach is the only one to be open during the enforcement of activities restriction against COVID-19 in the province. The tourism office also lauded the local tourism activism group for successfully improving the beach area to be eligible for the national competition on tourism development.
The province is endowed with 100 kilometers of white, sandy coasts from Balikpapan City to the Mahakam River Delta in Samarinda. Apart from Ambalat Beach, East Kalimantan also has the Amborawang and Tanah Merah beaches in Kutai Kartanegara, Manggar Beach in Balikpapan, and several other beaches.
Source: Antara News