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oll road operator Jasa Marga is ready to start construction of the third section of the Rp 7.3-trillion Semarang-Surakarta toll road this month, with the highway set to open in 2017.

Jasa Marga announced Monday that the publicly listed state-run firm had concluded the tender for the section connecting Bawen in Semarang with Salatiga, which will span around 17.6 kilometers. The tender for the project began in April.

Jasa Marga corporate secretary David Wijayatno said construction was expected to begin shortly.

'€œWe hope that the toll road can start commercial operation by Lebaran next year,'€ he said in a written statement. The holiday will fall early in July next year.

The Bawen-Salatiga toll road comprises six subsections, with Adhi Karya, Pembangunan Perumahan (PP), Nindya Karya and Jaya Konstruksi the project'€™s contractors.

The section is one of five that make up the 72.64-kilometer highway connecting Semarang and Surakarta, which was begun in 2009. It is expected to absorb around Rp 7.3 trillion (US$546.22 million) in total investment and will be operated by Trans Marga Jateng, which is 60 percent owned by Jasa Marga and 40 percent owned by the Central Java administration, according to a company statement.

The Bawen-Salatiga section is the third and middle section of the project, which aims to ease gridlock around provincial capital Semarang and other congested areas, such as industrial district Ungaran.

The first section, stretching 11.3 kilometers to connect Semarang and Ungaran, opened in November 2011, while the second section, the 12 kilometer Ungaran-Bawen toll road, opened in April 2014.

Less than half the land needed for the fourth and fifth sections has been acquired. The fourth section will span 24 kilometers between Salatiga and Boyolali, while the fifth will be a 7.64-kilometer stretch connecting Boyolali and Kartasura in Surakarta.

Jasa Marga is working on a number of other toll roads in Java in support of the government'€™s massive Trans Java project, which aims to connect the western and eastern ends of the country'€™s most populous island by 2019.

In April, Jasa Marga and state-run builder Waskita Karya acquired the 90-kilometer-long Surakarta-Kertosono highway project from Thiess Contractors. The project could absorb Rp 10 trillion.

Jasa Marga holds a 60 percent stake in the project, while Waskita owns the remainder.

President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo recently asked the consortium to prepare the road to open in 30 months to support the Trans Java project.

Jasa Marga president director Adityawarman said recently that three further projects would complete the Trans Java highway, namely the Cikampek-Palimanan toll road in West Java and the Pemalang-Batang and Batang-Semarang toll roads, both in Central Java.

The company, Adityawarman said, was looking to kick off the combined 114-kilometer Central Java toll road projects next year, although only 11 percent of the required land had been acquired as of the first quarter.

Jasa Marga is preparing Rp 3.85 trillion in capital expenditure (capex) this year, with Rp 2.46 trillion to be used to develop its toll road business, while the remaining Rp 1.14 trillion will be used as operating capital. Of the total capex, Rp 1 trillion will come from bank loans, the remainder from internal cash.