REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has stressed that infrastructure development in Papua will continue. The head of state has ordered Minister of Public Works and Public Housing Basuki Hadimuljono to continue the construction of the 4,600-kilometer Trans Papua road.
"I say development of the Trans Papua Road will continue to be carried out. It will not stop," President Jokowi remarked at a press conference at the Merdeka Palace here on Wednesday.
According to the president, 35 bridges will be built along the Trans Papua road, from Wamena to Mumugu.
"Hence, infrastructure development in Papua will continue. It means that the Public Works and Public Housing Ministry continues to develop the Land of Papua to realize social justice for all people of Indonesia," the president emphasized.
Furthermore, the head of state remarked that carrying out development in the Papua region indeed posed a challenge owing to factors, including the difficult geographical terrain, limited access, and security disturbances. Due to the difficult geographic terrain, the president said that helicopters were needed to transport heavy equipment and asphalt to several construction sites of the Trans Papua road.
"This is what sometimes causes a project to halt, for instance, due to a tough tool and the security aspect, so the workers there really bet their lives," the president explained.
In the meantime, Public Works and Public Housing Minister Basuki noted that the government had built the Trans Papua and West Papua roads along 3,500 kilometers and 1,100 kilometers of border roads. In the Wamena-Mumugu section, built along 278 kilometers, 35 bridges were also built.
The total construction of new roads during the 2015-2019 period in Papua and West Papua spans 1,052 kilometers, with maintenance of 4,160 kilometers of roads.
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