JAKARTA – Despite the controversy, President Joko Widodo’s government managed to build 2,400 km of toll roads across Indonesia.
In other words, the Ministry of Public Works and Housing (PUPR) under the lead of Basuki Hadimuljono managed to increase the number of toll road accesses in the last 40 years.
Where since the 70s, there were only 800 km of toll roads that had been built in Indonesia until 2014.
“Our building capacity from the 70s, almost 40 years, is less than 800 km. But in the past 10 years, almost 2.400 km will be built by the end of 2024,” Ministerial Expert Staff for Technology, Industry and Environment of the Ministry of PUPR Endra S. Atmawidjaja told The Editor at the Office of Ministry of PUPR in Jakarta.
The longest toll road access during the construction of the past 10 years, he continued, is on the trans-Sumatra route.
The 1.200 km long toll road was successfully built to unite Sumatra from Bandar Lampung to Aceh.
This is twice the length of the toll road built in Java.
Although not yet fully connected, Endra is confident that the entire trans-Sumatra access will be connected by the end of 2024.
Next Project is Connecting Toll Roads and Productive Areas
Endra said, in order to have more value, the government must connect toll roads with productive areas.
And so far, he admitted, there are indeed many productive areas that lack high selling value because they do not have adequate toll road access.
The productive areas in question are agricultural areas, food barn areas, mining areas, and urban areas.
“In urban areas, there are airports, harbors, services and trade. So how to connect the toll road with the area. That is our task in the future,” he said.
Focus on Making Decisions
Labuan Bajo, a fishing village in eastern Indonesia, is one of the Ministry’s pilot projects for productive areas.
To become what it is today, Endra said, the Labuan Bajo area was given a touch of infrastructure by the Ministry of PUPR.
“When an unproductive fishing area was given a touch of infrastructure, its face changed, the scale of its activities changed, its services changed from national to international,” he explained.
Endra said that Minister Basuki is indeed serious in developing the Labuan Bajo area to succeed in becoming a new tourist destination that matches Bali.
