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TNI to build civilian roads in Papua
The government has taken on the near impossible: building 1,520 kilometers of new roads in less than two years on the harsh terrain of Papua and West Papua — the nation’s least developed and isolated provinces
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he government has taken on the near impossible: building 1,520 kilometers of new roads in less than two years on the harsh terrain of Papua and West Papua — the nation’s least developed and isolated provinces.
As no private contractors have the ability to do the job using the allocated budget, the Presidential Unit to Accelerate the Development of Papua and West Papua (UP4B) has turned to the Indonesian Military (TNI) for help.
According to the unit, the massive infrastructure project will open the isolated provinces at a cost of Rp 1.5 trillion (US$154 million), also with the help of the Public Works Ministry and local administrations.
A presidential decree expected to be issued in the next few months authorizing the TNI to do such work inside the nation’s borders will clear the way for more than a 1,000 soldiers from the Army’s engineering detachment to get to work.
“If we depend on the ministry and local agencies to build the roads, it will take around 60 years to complete,” UP4B chief expert Doddy Imam Hidayat said. “The TNI’s deployment is aimed at speeding up the process at a relatively low cost, as it is not seeking any financial profit.”
Despite the province’s annual budget of around Rp 40 trillion, the seventh-largest in the nation, Papua remains at the bottom of the list for infrastructure development.
Officials have said that the provincial budget has been drained to cover expensive transportation costs and inflated prices resulting from a lack of roads and ports.
“Jakarta thinks that we get a big budget that is sufficient for development,” Pegunungan Bintang deputy regent Yakobus Wayam said. “They seem to be ignorant of the fact that most of the funds have been spent on transportation costs.
He added that around 40 percent of the regency’s budget went to
subsidizing transportation.
With the intended road system, the UP4B wants to bring down the prices of goods and materials so
that regional budgets can be spent efficiently on infrastructure development.
“The planned roads will also help accelerate the expansion of healthcare and education services for people living in the remote areas of the provinces,” Doddy said.
