important fort named Willem I for the Dutch king. The first state railway line was built through the mountains on the southern part of Java, instead of the flat regions on the north, for a similar strategic reason. The state railway in Java connected Anyer on the western coast of the island, to Banyuwangi on the eastern coast. Sumatra In Sumatra, railways were first used for military purposes, with a railway line connecting Banda Aceh and its port of Uleelhee in 1876. This railway, the Atjeh Staats Spoorwegen (ASS), first built to a gauge which was later regauged to and extended south. This line was only transferred to the Ministry of Colonies from the Ministry of War on 1 January 1916, following the relative pacification of Aceh. The Western Sumatra's state railway in the Minangkabau area, the Staatsspoorwegen ter Sumatra's Westkust (SSS) transported coal from inland mines to the port at Padang and was built between 1891 and 1894 The Southern Sumatra's state railway, the Staatsspoorwegen op Zuid-Sumatra (ZSS), was completed in the 1930s. It served a fertile plantation area and an important coal mine. Another important private railway line was the Deli Spoorweg Maatschappij (DSM). This line served regions producing rubber and tobacco in Deli. Sulawesi Between July 1922 and 1930, a -long railway line operated in South Sulawesi. This line was to be extended to North Sulawesi, as part of a massive project of railway construction in Borneo and Sulawesi, connection of separate railway systems in Sumatra and electrification of the main lines in Java. The Great Depression of 1929 put paid to these plans. Japanese occupation During the Japanese occupation between 1942 and 1945, the different railway lines in Java were managed as one entity. The Sumatra systems, being under the administration of a different branch of the Japanese armed forces, remained separate. The occupiers also converted the ( lines in Java into , thereby resolving the dual gauge issue. This was not an actual "problem" as there was not much transfer of materials between the systems, and much of the system had been fitted with a third rail by 1940, creating a mixed-gauge railway. Many locomotives were seized and transported to Malaya, Burma and elsewhere. The railway network was reduced from in 1939 to in 1950 in order to provide material for railway construction in Burma. Independence era During the war for independence between 1945 and