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ANGERANG: Toll road operator PT Jasa Marga has started work on widening the 27-kilometer strip of the Tangerang-Jakarta turnpike to deal with worsening congestion on that road.

“We started work on the project earlier this month and when it is completed in September it will have three lanes,” said Djuarta Dinata, PT Jasa Marga Jakarta-Tangerang spokesman, Thursday.

Recent records from the company said that the total number of vehicles passing that section of the turnpike reached 250,806 per day.

“The first part of the work would be on the Bitung-Kembangan section and then continue to the Tomang toll gate. But for this, we still have a problem on land acquisition,” he said.

He said the Kembangan-Tomang section of the toll road was heavily enclosed by commercial buildings, which made it too costly for PT Jasa Marga to start a widening project.

Djuarta also said that the narrow toll road coupled with worsening snarls had also contributed to the rising number of accidents. Last year, PT Jasa Marga recorded eight fatalities from road accidents, or one accident in one and a half months.

“But we recorded no big pile up last year fortunately. We learned, however, that the area most prone to accidents was Bencongan area in Karawaci,” he added. — JP