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ublic Works and Public Housing Ministry announced on Thursday that it had finished the prequalification process for the Batang-Semarang toll road as part of the trans-Java highway, granting five companies the chance to bid for the previously stalled toll road.

The companies are PT Bangun Tjipta Sarana, state-owned construction company PT Pembangunan Perumahan, a consortium of the Malaysian-based Plus Expressway International Berhad, Nusa Raya Cipta and Saratoga Investama Sedaya, a consortium of China Harbour Indonesia and PT Lancar Jaya Mandiri Abadi and a consortium of state toll road operator PT Jasa Marga and state toll construction firm PT Waskita Toll Road. '€œWe have asked them to submit their bids in a month,'€ Minister Basuki Hadimuljono said in an official statement.

The tender is slated to finish by mid-March. The tender winner for the 75-kilometer toll road would also have to complete construction and operate it by at least 2018, as targeted by the government for the trans-Java highway. Land clearing has reached 10 kilometers, paving the way for the company to begin construction, according to ministry data. The ministry planned to free up an additional 3 km of land soon.

It previously gave the concession of the toll road to PT Marga Setia Puritama, but it revoked the concession as the company failed to pay the commitment fee to guarantee the development of the toll road that has been stalled for nearly a decade.