Sunday 27 April 2014

GOVERNMENT FOCUS EFFORT ON ROAD INFRASTRUCTURE BUILDING



The Government admitted that infra-struc­ture in Indonesia was still far from perfection, and such was felt as one of the handicaps in the process of social and economic development in Indonesia. To overcome the problem, a number of large scale infra­structure projects were now underway in many re­gions. Two ministries were responsible in infra struc­ture building, i.e. the Ministry of Public Works and the Ministry of Transportation/Communication. In 2014, budget allocation of the Ministry of Public Works was prioritized for national connectivity through road building.

Meanwhile in 2015 the Ministry of Public Works would need at least Rp.123.29 trillions for infra­structure building in Indonesia an increase of 46.5% compared to 2014 at Rp.84.14 trillion. The fund would be used for building infra-structure in water resources system, road management, development of infra-structure four housing settlements and space planning by the Ministry of Public Works. Djoko Kir­manto, the Minister of Public Works stated in Jakarta on Friday [11/4] stated that of the total Rp.123.29 trillion budget, Rp.60.03 trillion was allocated for road construction. The breakdown: for road infra structure 2,423 km long, for restoration of bridges 9.5 km, construction of new roads 402 km, and widening of road in strategic location, border regions and remote regions 790 km.

Meanwhile in 2014 the Government was striving to increase road capacity in Sumatra, Java, Bali, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, West Nusa Tenggara, East Nusa Tenggara Timur and Papua totaling 3,854.3 km long, including maintenance of 329.9 km long bidges, The allocation for ministries was in synergy with in­vestment plan for related BUMN, whereby to step up capacity for transportation services in each sector re­spectively.

Today transportation of goods in Indonesia was still reliant on roads, and yet transportation by railway was supposed to be more efficient. The ex­isting data showed the total length of railway in In­donesia was around 6,000 km of which more than 2,000 km were no longer functional, most of them were branch rails regarded as not advantageous when put in operation.

Beside the Ministry of Public Works, the Min­istry of Transportation would also reduce land trans­portation burden on roads in Indonesia by integrat­ing various transportation mode. Deputy Minister of Transportation Bambang Susantono mentioned that 93% of goods flow were today transported on roads, making the roads to be over-burdened.

The over-burdened roads were clearly visible among others in Java Northern Coastline Highway [Pantura] which showed how overloaded the roads were. Therefore, in the next 5 years the Government planned to decentralize traffic flow by activating rail­way transportation service.

The deputy Transportation Minister admit­ted that today railway was only at best in Java and Sumatra, but in the next 5 years they would build railway also in Kalimantan, Sulawesi of even Papua especially if Indonesia had strong fiscal ca­pacity to realize the development. The Government would also activate inter-insular sailing communica­tion in some cities like Jakarta, Cirebon, Semarang and Surabaya.

Previously the Ministry of Transportation was reported to scheme up the National Transportation Strategic Plan 2015 - 201 9 to realize the integrated multi-mode transportation concept. The inter-mode transport system was to inter-connect various transportation mode to accelerate traffic of goods and people actively and efficiently, such as in the marine sector which must be strengthened as most of Indo­nesia consists of the sea. (SS)

Business New - April 16, 2014

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