Jakarta (VNA) – Effortsare in full swing to mend the runway of Sis Al Jufri Airport in Palu, Indonesia’sCentral Sulawesi province, after the recent devastating earthquakes and tsunamiin the Southeast Asian country, according to an Indonesian official.

The repair will be completedon October 11 with damage on the 2,500-m runway fixed so as to sustain aircraftmaking commercial flights, Minister of Transportation Budi Karya Sumadi said.

When aircraft of the CN 235,Airbus 320 and 737 types can operate, they will help accelerate the transportof aid relief to the victims of the natural disasters here and resume directflights from Jakarta, the minister elaborated, adding full operation of theairport can be expected next week.

Two days after theearthquakes and tsunami hit the region on September 28, forcing the closure ofthe airport, light aircraft could use part of the facility with top prioritygiven to aid relief and evacuation work.

Indonesia announced onOctober 5 the death toll from the earthquake and tsunami had swollen to 1,558.

Central Sulawesi was ravagedby two devastating quakes measuring 6.1 and 7.5 on the Richter scale. Thesecond was followed by giant tsunami waves on the afternoon of the same day,destroying thousands of houses and roads.

The United Nations said thatnearly 200,000 Indonesians, including tens of thousands of children, are inneed of urgent aid.

Indonesia is frequentlystruck by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis because of its locationon the "Ring of Fire", an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in thePacific Basin.

A series of earthquakes inJuly and August killed nearly 500 people on the holiday island of Lombok,hundreds of kilometres southwest of Sulawesi.

In December 2004, a massive9.1-magnitude earthquake off the northern Indonesian island of Sumatratriggered a tsunami across the Indian Ocean countries, killing 220,000 peoplein 13 countries, including more than 168,000 in Indonesia. –VNA