Govt To Commence Trans-Sumatra Toll Roads

Jakarta, Aug 18 (Antara) - Public Works Minister Djoko Kirmanto said the government will launch the groundbreaking of the Trans-Sumatra Toll Road projects before the end of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono`s tenure in October this year. "Construction of two sections of the Trans-Sumatra Toll Road project is expected to commence during the tenure of the current cabinet at the end of September or early October," Djoko Kirmanto said on last Friday. The Trans-Sumatra toll road project was expected to start earlier in December, 2013, and scheduled for completion by 2025. However, the government has been facing some constraints, including land clearance, in carrying out the project. Therefore, Minister Kirmanto said, the Yudhoyono government, which had committed to develop the toll road projects in Sumatra, will commence the construction of the two sections first. The two sections that have become the focus of the present government cover the 16.8-km Medan-Binjai section in North Sumatra and the 22-km Palembang-Indralaya section in South Sumatra. Although the government still faces land clearance problems in the construction of the two sections, Minister Kirmanto is convinced that the government in the remaining two months of its tenure will be able to solve the problem. "About 70 percent of the land in the Medan-Binjai section belongs to state-owned companies (BUMN). The Ministry of BUMN is expected to share the project, so that there will be no more problems with regard to land clearance. If Medan and Binjai are connected with one section, 70 percent of the construction will have been settled. So, we are optimistic," the minister noted. For the construction of the two sections of the Trans-Sumatra Toll Road project, according to Public Works Minister, the government had earlier predicted that the Medan-Binjai section will cost Rp2 trillion, while the Palembang-Indralaya will cost Rp1 trillion. The 2,771-km Trans-Sumatra Toll Roads, which will cross provinces across Sumatra, from Aceh in the west to Lampung in the east, consists of 23 toll road sections. With an estimated construction cost of Rp200 trillion, the project is expected to be included in the map of the ASEAN Highway Network and is expected to be completed by 2025.