South Kalimantan To Build Road Between Port To Barito Bridge

Banjarmasin, March 22 (Antara Kalsel) - The South Kalimantan administration said it will build a new road to link the port of Trisakti Banjarmasin and the Barito Bridge on the border area with Central Kalimantan.

Chairman of the regional development planning board Jasran said the road is necessary to ease congestion in Banjarmasin with big trucks coming in and going out of the provincial city.

The government could not bans trucks from entering the city until they are given an alternative road, Jasran said here on Thursday.

The trucks have no other way to carry goods between the port and the Barito bridge , the link to Central Kalimantan across the river, he said.

"The only way to cope with growing congestion in Banjarmasin is by building a new road directly between the port of Trisakti and the Barito bridge," he said.

With the new road, container trucks and other heavy duty trucks do not have to enter the city to reach the Barito Bridge and cross the river to Central Kalimantan.

Implementation of the project, however, is not easy as it would need clearing of wide land , he said, adding many people would have to be relocated.

Flyover would also be built over certain section of the road, which is estimated to be around 10 kilometer long, he added.

Feasibility study is being made of the project , he said.

Meanwhile, head of the provincial public works service Martinus said there are number of big infrastructure projects to be implemented in South Kalimantan.

"We hope the provincial administration would have Rp2 trillion from the state budget in 2014 to finance infrastructure projects in the province," Martinus said.