Jakarta (ANTARA) - State-owned construction company PT Adhi Karya has announced that construction work on the Sigli-Banda Aceh toll road project has reached 67.9 percent completion as of March, 2021.
Part of the Trans-Sumatra highway, the Rp7.7-trillion Sigli-Banda Aceh toll road project has five sections, PT Adhi Karya president director Entus Asnawi Mukhson said.
The five sections are the Padang Tiji-Seulimeum, Seulimeum-Jantho, Jantho-Indrapuri, Indrapuri-Blang Bintang, and Blang Bintang-Kutabaro-Baitussalam, he informed during a webinar here on Wednesday.
Construction work on the Padang Tiji-Seulimeum section is 39.5 percent complete, while the Seulimeum-Jantho section has reached 74.8 percent completion, he said.
Meanwhile, work on the Blang Bintang-Kutabaro section has reached 29.3 percent completion, while 61.7 percent of the Kutabaro-Baitussalam section has been built, Mukhson said.
PT Adhi Karya has completed work on the Jantho-Indrapuri and Indrapuri-Blang Bintang sections, and they are already operational, he informed.
The Sigli-Banda Aceh toll road is not only expected to cut travel time from three hours to one hour, but also help boost regional development, he said.
For the project, PT Adhi Karya considered the best routes that could accelerate the growth of new economic hubs without harming productive farmland, he added.
On August 25, 2020, President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) inaugurated the 13.5-km Indrapuri-Blang Bintang toll road, the first toll road section in Aceh province.
Among the five remaining sections of the Banda Aceh-Sigli toll road, the Jantho-Indrapuri section spans 16 km; the Padang Tiji-Seulimum section will span 24.3 km; Seulimum-Jantho 7.6 km; Blang Bintang-Kuta Baro, 7.7 km; and, Kuta Baro-Baitussalam, 5 km.
On September 25, 2020, a month after inaugurating the toll road in Aceh, Widodo inaugurated the 131-km Pekanbaru-Dumai toll road, the first highway in Riau province.
Since the first and second leadership terms of the President, infrastructure has been given special attention, with the notable extension of toll roads bearing testament to the infrastructure push.
According to the Public Works and Housing Ministry, during President Widodo’s first leadership term, at least 941 kilometers (km) of toll roads and 3,423 km of national roads were constructed.
Work on the Trans-Java Highway connecting the ferry port in Merak, Banten province to Surabaya, the capital city of East Java province has also been completed, thereby reducing travel time and logistics costs.
As part of the central government's prioritized development projects, toll roads are not merely being constructed in Java, but they are also being built outside the island, such as in Sumatra, Kalimantan, and Sulawesi.
In Sumatra Island, several sections of the Trans-Sumatra Toll Road have been completed, and the government is planning to complete entire sections by 2024.
Work on the Trans-Sumatra Toll Road Construction project is still under way. State-owned construction companies involved in the project have been striving ceaselessly to ensure the road is completed within the set time-frame. (INE)
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