T

he Public Works Ministry has inaugurated the last section of the Jakarta Outer Ring Road (JORR)W2 North, connecting Ciledug and Ulujami in West Jakarta, providing greater access to Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Banten.

Minister Djoko Kirmanto said in the inauguration ceremony of the 2.1-kilometer section on Monday that the section completed the entire network of the JORR, which connects Rorotan in East Jakarta to Penjaringan in North Jakarta.

'€œFinally, people from Bekasi and Bogor, both in West Java, as well as people from Tangerang in Banten, can go directly to Soekarno-Hatta International Airport without using the Jakarta inner-city toll road,'€ he said during his speech at the ceremony.

He said with the operation of the JORR W2 North section, the JORR toll road now connected to several toll roads in Greater Jakarta, namely the Jakarta-Cikampek, Jagorawi, Jakarta-Tangerang and Sedyatmo toll roads near the airport.

With the completion of the JORR W2 North section, it is expected that traffic density on the Jakarta inner-city toll road will consequently decrease by 30 percent, according to Djoko.

'€œPeople who do not want to go to Jakarta, do not need to pass through the middle of Jakarta anymore,'€ he said, adding that the development of the toll road was part of the government'€™s efforts to ease traffic ahead of the expected homecoming exodus around Idul Fitri, which will fall next week.

Meanwhile, Subakti Syukur '€” president director of PT Marga Lingkar Jakarta, the operator of the JORR '€” said the opening of the section of the toll road was five months ahead of the initial target of November, thanks to faster land acquisition.

Marga Lingkar Jakarta is a joint-venture company of state-owned toll operator PT Jasa Marga and Jakarta-owned company PT Jakarta Marga Jaya.

Jasa Marga owns 65 percent of Marga Lingkar Jakarta and Jakarta Marga Jaya has the remaining 35 percent.

The project had previously stalled in 2010 due to land-acquisition issues.

Jasa Marga corporate secretary David Wijayanto said that Jasa Marga expected the number of four-wheeled vehicles and larger passing through the toll road to increase to around 75,000 per day, from the previous 20,000 per day, once the toll road was operating fully.

'€œWe expect that many heavy vehicles will use the JORR,'€ he said.

The tariff for four-wheeled vehicles on the JORR W2 North is Rp 8,500 (73 US cents), similar to tariffs on other JORR sections.

The W2 North has a total length of 7.9 kilometers and connects Kebun Jeruk and Ulujami.

Its first section, connecting Kebun Jeruk and Ciledug, was inaugurated last December and started operating in January.

The first section, which was divided into three sections, was constructed by state construction firms PT Wijaya Karya, PT Adhi Karya, and PT Waskita Karya, while the last section was constructed by Jakarta-owned PT Jaya Konstruksi Manggala Pratama.

It cost Rp 2.2 trillion to develop the JORR W2 North toll road, with 70 percent of the total investment coming in the form of loans from state lender Bank Mandiri and city lender Bank DKI and the remaining 30 percent coming from Marga Lingkar Jakarta'€™s internal cash reserves.

According to the ministry, there are around 54 km of JORR in operation, namely the JORR S (14.3 km), E1 South (4.5 km), E1 North (8.1 km), E2 (9 km), E3 (3.6 km), W2 South (5.7 km) and now the 7.9 km of W2 North. (ask)