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nfrastructure firm PT Lintas Marga Sedaya says it is accelerating the construction of the 116-kilometer Cikampek'Palimanan (Cipali) project that was inaugurated in late 2011.

Director Steve Ginting said the firm would spend the Rp 1 trillion (US$100 million) investment it acquired from a bank syndicate's loans in the second half to help it meet its 2015 completion target.

According to Steve, the company had finished around 5 percent of the Rp 12.6 trillion toll road project in West Java, exceeding the 3 percent target it set for the first half. It has yet to begin construction of the toll road, however.

'We believe that we can achieve our target as we have acquired 99 percent of the land required for the Cipali project,' he said on Monday, adding that several areas in Subang and Majalengka were acquired before the start of the fasting month.

The toll road project has been deemed crucial for development of the areas stretched between Cikampek and Palimanan as well as other regions in the province. Cikampek hosts a number of industrial estates while Palimanan will be developed into an integrated industrial cluster for crude palm oil processing units belonging to state-owned plantation firm PT Rajawali Nusantara Indonesia.

Also, people or goods traveling between Jakarta and Cirebon are expected to benefit from the toll road with a shorter estimated travel time of 3.5 hours from the current five, which may help reduce the country's high logistics costs.

The project kicked off in December 2011 and with an initial operational target date of next year but the company only began working on it in January this year following the issuance of an official document by the Public Works Ministry that ordered the project to start.

The project experienced delays due to land acquisition issues, which led to the refusal of loan disbursements until all land purchases were complete.

The firm is will spend the remaining Rp 7.8 trillion investment in the form of syndicated loans from 22 banks, including Bank Central Asia (BCA) and Bank DKI, to complete the project.

The Cipali toll road has been divided into six sections, namely Cikopo'Kalijati (29.12 km), Kalijati'Subang (9.56 km), Subang'Cikedung (31.37 km), Cikedung'Kertajati (17.66 km), Kertajati'Sumberjaya (14.51 km) and Sumberjaya'Palimanan (13.78 km).

The project is also part of the Trans-Java toll network, comprising 22 toll road projects considered the backbone of Java's economy that represent almost 50 percent of the nation's economy.

BCA president director Jahja Setiaatmadja said the loan BCA disbursed for the project was one of the largest among other toll road projects.