President: Rp800 billion to repair 15 road sections in Lampung
This article has been translated by PwC Indonesia as part of our Indonesia Infrastructure News Service. PwC Indonesia has not checked the accuracy of, and accepts no responsibility for the content.
Investor Daily - Presiden: Rp800 miliar untuk perbaikan 15 ruas jalan di Lampung
8 May 2023
By: Amrozi Amenan
Jakarta - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) said, this year, specifically for Lampung Province, the central government will disburse a budget of around Rp800 billion to repair 15 regional road segments.
“The people need to know that the one responsible to manage a road is different depending on the road type. National roads are handled by the central government, provincial roads by governors, and regency/local roads by regents and mayors. However, as the regional roads have been damaged for a long time, the repairs will be taken over by the central government. This year, specifically for Lampung, the central government will disburse a budget of around Rp800 billion for 15 regional road segments,” President Jokowi said after seeing the damage on Kota Gajah Interchange-Randu Interchange road segment in Lampung Province on Friday (5/5/2023).
During his visit, President Jokowi was accompanied by State-owned Enterprises (SOE) Minister Erick Thohir, Public Works and Housing (PUPR) Minister Basuki Hadimuljono, and Trade Minister Zulkifli Hasan.
President Jokowi mentioned that damaged roads in Lampung Province would be taken over by the PUPR Ministry if the provincial government or the regency government do not have the financial capability to repair them.
“It will commence as soon as possible. Severely damaged roads in provinces and regencies that do not have the capability to repair them will be taken over by the PUPR Ministry,” President Jokowi said.
President Jokowi said that he already instructed the PUPR Minister to tender the work.
“As it must be tendered, as soon as I saw the location, I instructed the PUPR Minister to hold the tender. The work will commence in June,” he said.
Currently, President Jokowi said that the spirit was to repair damaged roads.
“We want to repair the damaged roads that we travel through together, including regency, provincial, and local roads that are severely damaged,” President Jokowi said.
He continued that the repair was expected to aid the people.
“As the roads have been damaged for a long time, they will be taken over by the central government. It is expected to help the people,” he added.
However, the President reminded that several road segments would still be the responsibility of the Governor and the Regent.
“The central government cannot handle everything,” President Jokowi said.
According to President Jokowi, infrastructure, especially roads, is crucial for regional development. Roads impact logistics distribution, including foodstuff.
“Logistics costs rely on the condition of the infrastructure that we have,” President Jokowi said.
Meanwhile, SOE Minister Erick Thohir who also accompanied President Jokowi said that President Jokowi visited Lampung to see the condition of the road infrastructure that went viral some time ago.
“This morning, [PUPR Minister] Basuki, [Trade Minister] Zulkifli Hasan, and I accompanied the President to visit the road construction in Lampung,” Erick said.
Erick reckoned that infrastructure played a large role in maintaining the stability of food prices as logistics cost is a factor that impacts food prices in the market.
“The President said that the PUPR Ministry was ready to take over road repairs if the provincial and regency governments in Lampung were incapable. SOEs as construction agents are also ready to help the PUPR Ministry to create better infrastructure to reduce logistics costs on our food,” Erick said.
After a video that has a duration of 3 minutes 28 seconds was uploaded to the TikTok account of Bima Yudho Saputro who lives in Australia some time ago, road damages in Lampung went viral. Bima stated that he was disappointed with the condition in Lampung that do not seem to progress due to damaged roads.
During the occasion, PUPR Minister Basuki Hadimuljono said that the regional road repairs were in line with Presidential Instruction Number 3 Year 2023 on Acceleration in the Improvement of the Connectivity of Regional Roads that was issued by the President in March 2023. The purpose of the presidential instruction on regional roads is to handle damaged non-national roads and to improve the condition of regional roads throughout Indonesia with the help of the state budget (APBN).
“We will immediately carry out the order from the President by holding the work tender in May 2023. So, in June, the road repairs can commence,” Minister Basuki said.
According to the data from the PUPR Ministry from 2022, Lampung Province has 99 provincial road segments that span 1,693 km with 77% in good condition and 6,591 regency road segments that span 17,774 km with 50% in good condition. National roads in Lampung span 1,298 km with 95% in good condition.
Currently, there are 15 regional road segments in Lampung that have been proposed to be handled through the presidential instruction on regional roads, which includes Kota Gajah-Randu Interchange segment. The segment that spans 29 km is a provincial road that connects the central route and the eastern route of Trans-Sumatra in Lampung Province that supports agriculture areas and prawn ponds.
The people in Seputih Banyak in Central Lampung are expecting the road infrastructure improvement to be conducted in a comprehensive manner after President Jokowi visited the region.
“Road damages in the region have persisted for a long time. It went viral on social media, so it only garnered attention recently,” a citizen in Sudirja in Central Lampung said.
He expects that, with the appearance of President Jokowi in the region, the road infrastructure can be repaired in a comprehensive manner.
“We hope that not only the viral segment is repaired as there are many damaged roads. Not only at one or two locations. It hinders the activities of the people. Moreover, it is an agriculture area,” he said.
He explained that the people have been independently repairing damaged roads.
“The repairs are carried out independently by collecting voluntary funds from the people to buy stones to patch the road,” he stated.
Transportation observer Djoko Setijowarno said that the case of damaged roads in Lampung was a momentum to organise quality road construction and stop the operation of over dimension and overload (ODOL) trucks.
“ODOL truck activities must be stopped. It is a waste to build roads if there are still ODOL trucks, which damage roads and increase the costs of road maintenance. ODOL truck activities damage state assets,” Djoko said.
He added that damaged roads were caused by three factors, namely construction that is not in line with the technical specification, ODOL trucks, and bad drain construction.
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