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Ministry to build roads connecting seaports, airports
The Public Works and Public Housing Ministry is to build 1,000 kilometers of roads connecting seaports and airports between now and 2019 as part of government plans to solve infrastructure bottlenecks at the nationâs ports
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The Public Works and Public Housing Ministry is to build 1,000 kilometers of roads connecting seaports and airports between now and 2019 as part of government plans to solve infrastructure bottlenecks at the nation's ports.
President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo's administration aims to develop 24 seaports, including existing ones, over a five-year period, as part of its push to connect the archipelago and bolster economic activity.
The Transportation Ministry also plans to construct 15 new airports across the country during the same period, including the long-awaited Kertajati Airport in West Java.
'These projects will not function properly without road connectivity, so we're committed to supporting these strategic projects,' Public Works and Public Housing Ministry director general for highways Djoko Murjanto said during a ministry working meeting on Friday.
Djoko said that the ministry would also build a total of 1,350 kilometers of road to support the development of 15 national strategic tourism areas (KSPN) over the next five years.
The strategic tourism areas that will see enhanced road connectivity include Lake Toba in North Sumatra ' through the construction of the Medan-Kuala Namu toll road ' as well as Borobudur temple in Magelang, Central Java, and Mount Bromo in Malang, East Java, through the construction of the Trans-Java toll road.
The Trans-Java mega toll road project will span hundreds of kilometers, connecting the western and eastern ends of Java.
Rp 2.69 trillion has been earmarked by the Public Works and Public Housing Ministry for the project this year.
It will also allocate Rp 3.7 trillion from the state budget to develop roads in border areas and Rp 1 trillion to support industrial estates, according to Djoko.
Another strategic project this year is the repair of Java's northern coastal highway (Pantura) ' connecting West and Central Java and and humming with economic activity ' which will get Rp 1.4 trillion this year, higher than Rp 1.3 trillion last year.
The ministry was awarded Rp 118 trillion in the 2015 State Budget, of which Rp 56.9 trillion is for the highways directorate general.
Over 60 percent of the directorate general's budget will be used to construct roads in the eastern part of the country, including Nusa Tenggara, Sulawesi and Papua.
Last year, the directorate general disbursed a total of Rp 38.6 trillion from its budget, around 95.8 percent of the total allocation.
'We failed to complete several flyover and underpass projects last year, mainly as a result of land acquisition problems,' Djoko explained.
The government is currently finalizing revisions to two presidential regulations on land acquisition and public-private partnerships (PPP) with the goal of boosting infrastructure projects and accelerating growth.
Djoko added that several projects had been delayed because of design inaccuracies and late disbursement of bank loans.
