REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, LAMPUNG -- President Joko Widodo, during his visit to Sumatra on Tuesday, reviewed the preparations for the Trans-Sumatra toll road development project, which is expected to boost integration and connectivity.
"We will start the Trans-Sumatra toll road and railway development project next year," he informed newsmen in Bakauheni, Lampung.
The president said he would gather inputs from the governor of Lampung regarding the province's preparations.
Jokowi, as the president is popularly known, hoped that the development project will help to improve connectivity and integration between the regions in the future.
"We wish to see its development in the next 50 to 100 years," he affirmed.
State Enterprises Minister Rini M. Soemarno has urged all state-owned construction companies involved in the Trans-Sumatra toll road development project to strengthen coordination, so that it can be implemented in line with the acceleration program for infrastructure development that has been proposed by the government.
In February 2012, the government, through the state enterprises ministry, planned to develop a 2.7 thousand-kilometer-long Trans-Sumatra toll road connecting the provinces of Aceh and Lampung, with an investment of almost Rp300 trillion.
In economic terms, the project cannot be single-handedly handled by the central government, and so, an agreement has been reached that the project would be carried out by a joint company to be set up by the state-owned road construction company Jasa Marga in collaboration with the regional governments in Sumatra.
The project will be divided into four main corridors and three priority corridors.
The four main corridors are Lampung-Palembang stretching 358 kilometers long, Palembang-Pekanbaru (610 kilometers), Pekanbaru-Medan (548 kilometers), and Medan-Banda Aceh (460 kilometers).
The three priority corridors are between Palembang and Bengkulu (303 kilometers), Pekanbaru-Padang (242 kilometers), and Medan-Sibolga (175 kilometers).
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