T

he Public Works Ministry is proposing a budget allocation of Rp 121 trillion (US$10.4 billion) to improve infrastructure and facilities in 2015.

Public Works Minister Djoko Kirmanto said on Monday that around half of the budget would be allocated to building and maintaining state roads and bridges.

Of the remaining amount, he said, 30 percent would be allocated to projects under the auspices of the mineral water resources directorate, and 20 percent would go to the Cipta Karya directorate general, which oversees the construction of public housing, state buildings, utilities, clean water and waste facilities. Numbers in the proposal, Djoko said, were still subject to change pending approval from the House of Representatives.

The ministry had earlier proposed a budget allocation of Rp 110.01 trillion for 2014 during a House of Representatives plenary session, but the House Commission V overseeing public works, transportation and public housing cut it to Rp 84.18 trillion.

Djoko said that the 2015 budget proposal would also be adjusted according to regional administrations'€™ infrastructure programs, but he remained optimistic. '€œLast year, [the ministry'€™s] budget absorption reached around 92 percent, which was a very good achievement compared to other ministries,'€ he said on the sidelines of a national meeting of regional public works agencies.

He said the ministry would need to make an extra effort to realize some projects, such as increasing the access to sanitation and drinking water as stated in the National Mid-Term Development Plan (RPJMN), which was in line with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Imam S. Ernawi, the ministry'€™s director general for Cipta Karya, said the ministry would increase access to sanitation from 58 percent in 2012 to 62.41 percent by the end of 2015, as targeted in the MDGs.

'€œWe are optimistic about meeting the sanitation target; however, we need to make an extra effort to reach the drinking water target,'€ he said, adding that the ministry needed to increase the outreach by 8 percent to meet the access to drinking water target of 68.8 percent.

The ministry also faced challenges in its toll roads project. The 2010-2014 RPJMN has set a target of 120 kilometers of toll roads to be completed by the end of this year.

The ministry, however, had only finished constructing 43.48 km of toll roads as of the end of 2013 due to land acquisition issues.

Djoko also said it was highly unlikely that the construction of the long-awaited Trans-Sumatra highway would begin this year as state-run construction company Hutama Karya was still waiting for a government regulation to carry out the project.

'€œIn appointing Hutama Karya to construct the highway, the government should also financially support it. But apparently, there is no allocation in the 2014 State Budget for the toll road,'€ he said, citing that the authority to propose the particular budget lay in the hands of the State-Owned Enterprises Ministry and the Finance Ministry.