T

he government is going to begin tender processes next year for thousands of medium-scale to mega infrastructure projects worth Rp 73.41 trillion (US$7.6 billion) in a bid to boost economic growth in the country.

The Public Works Ministry’s infrastructure planning and foreign investment bureau chief, Taufik Widjoyono, said that most of the projects were expected to break ground in the third quarter of 2013.

“We are optimistic that the execution of this plan is going to be relatively smooth because we have seen a number of projects that were originally planned to be put into tenders next year become available since November [of 2012],” Taufik told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

Construction on projects that entered the tender process in November is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2013.

“In the first quarter [of 2013], we will not only see projects start construction, but also a number of projects that will begin to enter the tender process,” he said.

He said major projects ready for tender next year included a toll road to Kalibaru Port, also known as New Priok Port, in North Jakarta; the Karian Dam in Lebak, Banten; and several sections of the Cileunyi–Sumedang–Dawuan (Cisumdawu) toll road and the Jatigede Dam in Sumedang, West Java.

According to Taufik, tenders would open in mid-January for those projects.

He said that the 7-kilometer-long toll road heading from Marunda to Kalibaru Port, set to be the country’s largest port, was going to be developed by publicly listed state-owned highway company PT Jasa Marga.

The construction was expected to wrap up before the end of 2014, when the first stage of the Kalibaru Port was completed, he said.

For the 60-kilometer Cisumdawu project, sections to be tendered are the Rancakalong–Sumedang and Sumedang–Cimalaka sections.

The government expected both sections to be up and running by the end of 2014, he said.

Currently, a China–Indonesia joint operation is working on the Cileunyi–Rancakalong section.

“Some projects are going to be finished in 2014, but the multi-year ones will take more time. Some may take up to 2016 and beyond,” he said.

One multi-year project is the Karian Dam, which will be financed by a US$100 million soft loan from South Korea.

The reservoir, once completed, will occupy some 2,107 hectares of land. As many as 1,720 hectares will be used to retain 219 billion liters of water, while the dam and associated buildings will cover the remainder.

The water treatment plant beside the dam would be able to process 9,000 liters of water per second for distribution to residential areas and industrial facilities in Tangerang, Serang and Cilegon, he said. An additional 5,500 liters of water per second will also be utilized to irrigate 21 hectares of agricultural land in Serang and Cilegon.

“We also plan to expand the reservoir’s services to supply water to Jakarta,” he said.

Another multi-year project is the Jatigede Dam, which stalled in the 1980s due to unresolved land acquisition problems.

The dam, which is estimated to cost around $400 million, is being built on 4,819 hectares of land, covering five districts across 26 subdistricts.

The project is expected to provide water at a rate of 3,500 liters per second and irrigate around 90,000 hectares of rice fields in Indramayu and Cirebon regencies.

“We have to admit that we are still facing land acquisition [challenges] in some areas on both dam projects. But, we believe we can solve them in the end,” he said.

In August, the government issued a regulation on land acquisition in hopes of spurring infrastructure development in the country. The regulation stipulates a maximum 583 days as the limit to complete land acquisitions. Businesspeople, however, were disappointed with the regulation, saying that 583 days was still too long.