T

he implementation of a law on land procurement for public infrastructure next year is expected to help expedite around 35 toll road projects that are mostly being delayed because of land acquisition problems.

Under Law No. 2/2012 on land procurement for public infrastructure that will be fully enforced in January 2015, land owners will be given a 583-day time limit before being forced to sell their property if it is necessary for public infrastructure projects.

However, the law guarantees that people whose property is affected by such projects will receive fair compensation. It also provides a 60-day public consultation period before the acquisition takes place, when land owners can appeal to the State Administrative Court (PTUN) if they object their land being taken over by the government. The PTUN would issue a ruling in 30 days.

'€œThe law is aimed at providing more certainty to infrastructure projects, but we will see later next year whether in practice the law really helps,'€ Herry Marzuki, the Public Works and Public Housing Ministry'€™s director for Bina Marga said on Thursday.

Businesses have complained that poor road conditions and a lack of roads have hurt connectivity and the competitiveness of the products they make and distribute here. High hopes abound that the law would spur economic activities in Indonesia.

Several new toll road projects had started their land acquisition processes using the new law to acquire land this year: for instance, the Palembang-Indralaya road in South Sumatra and Pekanbaru-Kandis-Dumai road in Riau.

However there are still plenty of toll road projects that are still delayed because of persistent land acquisition issues. Data from the Public Works and Public Housing Ministry released on Thursday showed that only 63.8 percent of the land needed for the long-awaited Trans Java toll road had been acquired by October.

Meanwhile, the progress of land acquisition for other toll road projects, including the Cibitung-Cilincing and Depok-Antasari toll roads, was still below the 30 percent mark.

'€œWe are currently still listing the projects [that could benefit from] the new law. We will announce the list by the end of this year,'€ Herry said. Ongoing projects that have already acquired more than 75 percent of the needed land will not benefit from the new law.

Meanwhile, Herry also announced on Thursday that 99 percent of the ministry'€™s budget allocation for land acquisition had been disbursed, to a total of Rp 1.17 trillion (US$96.3 million). '€œWe still have a few months left this year and there are several parcels of land ready to be acquired for toll road projects,'€ he added.

Hence, the ministry is still waiting for an additional Rp 630 billion from the Finance Ministry to buy land for seven toll road projects, including the Pandaan-Malang road in East Java, the Pasir Koja-Soreang road in West Java and the Medan-Binjai and Medan-Kualanamu roads in North Sumatra.