T

he 40.5-kilometer toll road connecting Mojokerto and Kertosono in East Java is expected to begin commercial operation by the end of this year after the operator settled a land acquisition problem with local residents, a Public Works Ministry senior official said in Jakarta on Thursday.

“Forty percent of the total construction work has been completed,” the ministry’s secretary-general Agoes Widjanarko said. He said that he hoped the toll road, which was initially scheduled to open to the public in 2011, could open at the end of this year.

The toll road, which would connect Surabaya, Mojokerto and the Kertosono–Mantingan–Solo toll roads, will be operated by PT Marga Hanurata Intrinstic (MHI), which will spend up to Rp 3.5 trillion (US$391.06 million) on the toll road project, including expenditure on land acquisition.

“Since connectivity is a very important issue in infrastructure, the toll road should start operating this year,” he said.

MHI general manager Ahmad Munaf told reporters recently that the operation of the toll road could not be done according to the initial schedule because of land acquisition problems.

Agoes said that in total, the government had allocated up to Rp 30.9 trillion this year for road management such as for maintenance along 36,288 kilometers of road, 279 meters of fly-overs, widening of 1,926 kilometers of road, and for construction of 377 kilometers road in southern Java.

In addition, in order to support the Master Plan for the Acceleration and Expansion of Indonesian Economic Growth (MP3EI), the government increased the ministry’s budget from Rp 56.91 trillion last year to Rp 62.5 trillion this year, he said.

Rp 16.44 trillion of the budget would be used for water resource management programs like building a 79,340-hectare irrigation network across the archipelago, a 28,638-hectare network of swamps, 227 dams and a 243-kilometer flood control facility.

The ministry then would spend Rp 12.82 trillion for housing education programs, developing housing infrastructure in more than 15,000 villages, and building an integrated garbage system.

Lastly, a Rp 800.98 billion will be spent on spatial planning programs in more than 273 regencies and cities nationwide.

“We are targeting to spend 93 percent of the budget so that we will get an optimum result from our programs,” he said.

Based on the ministry’s calculation, they will be able to spend up to 13.4 percent of the budget in the first quarter, 43.15 percent in the second quarter, 76.32 percent in the third quarter, and 93 percent in the end of 2012, he said.

He was optimistic that they would meet the target because one of major problems in infrastructure — asphalt supply — had been solved.

The ministry recently signed an agreement with state oil and gas company PT Pertamina stipulating that they would receive supply of good quality asphalt upon request at anytime and directly from the Pertamina refinery in Cilacap, Central Java.

The Public Works Ministry was rated as the best government institution last year as they were able to absorb 90.03 percent of their 2011 budget.

As a reward, the ministry is going to receive an unused fund (SILPA) of as much as Rp 3.9 trillion this year to help support their programs. Agoes said he hoped that the ministry would be able to get the fund in the middle of this year. (nfo)