Jakarta, Jan 11 (Antara) - Eid al-Fitr travelers in Java can breathe a sigh of relief, as the government has ensured that the toll roads connecting Jakarta with Semarang in Central Java will be passable this year.
Every year, Eid al-Fitr travelers heading to their hometowns, known as "mudik," for holidays, or "Lebaran," often face major gridlocks. With the Jakarta-Semarang toll roads, covering a distance of about 460 kilometers (km), to become passable for vehicles, travelers will have more alternative lanes to avoid traffic jams.
The Jakarta-Semarang toll roads are parts of the Trans Java Toll Road, which stretches some 815 km from Merak of Banten Province in the western tip of Java to Surabaya of East Java in the eastern part of the island.
The Merak-Jakarta and Jakarta-Cikampek combined sections, spanning about 260 km, have been operational since 1984 and 1988 respectively. The Cikampek-Cirebon section, spanning some 160 km, was inaugurated in the middle of 2016. The Cirebon-Semarang section is expected to become operational this year.
Hence, the government has made assurance that the travelers can use the Merak-Jakarta-Semarang toll roads during the next Lebaran exodus in June this year.
"Travelers can use the toll roads from Jakarta to Semarang in Central Java, as the new toll road segments between Cirebon and Semarang, notably the Pejagan-Pemalang, Pemalang-Batang, and Batang-Semarang, are expected to have been connected and are functionally passable by vehicles during the Lebaran exodus next June," Public Works and Public Housing Minister Basuki Hadimuljono stated in Batang, Central Java, on Monday.
The minister made the statement in connection with the inspection conducted by President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) on the 75-km-long Batang-Semarang toll road segment.
According to Hadimuljono, functionally passable means that the new toll roads are already operational for private cars, although these roads are still in the lean concentrate form, with a concrete thickness of 10 centimeters and made using a cement-hard soil mixture.
The minister also stressed that his ministry and toll road management companies, such as PT Jasa Marga, PT Waskita, and PT Sumber Mitra Java, had agreed to maintain the work's momentum, so that the projects would be completed on time.
To this end, Jokowi had inspected the toll roads to ensure that the 650-km-long Jakarta-Surabaya section of the Trans Java Toll Road would be completed in 2018 and to ensure that travelers would be able to use the toll roads from Cirebon to Semarang this year.
Minister Hadimuljono had been there since Saturday (January 8) to directly monitor the development of the three toll road sections: Pejagan-Pemalang, Pemalang-Batang, and Batang-Semarang. He concluded that based on the availability of infrastructure, the "mudik" event this year would be better as compared to the Lebaran exodus last year.
He said that with the Trans Java Toll Road from Jakarta to Semarang becoming functional, there will be more alternative lanes, as the flow of traffic can be split and would not merely be concentrated in East Brebes similar to what had occurred last year.
"If the toll road becomes operational in Ngaliyan, the flow of travelers can be split in Brebes for those heading to Purwokerto. Hence, the number of alternative lanes will increase," Hadimuljono explained.
According to the minister, the construction work for sections 3 and 4 of the Pejangan-Pemalang toll road is 57.25 percent complete. Some 98 percent of the land has been acquired. Although it is targeted to be fully completed in December 2017, it can be made functional for the Eid al-Fitr travelers this year.
The Pejagan-Pemalang toll road stretches 57.5 km and comprises four sections. Sections I and 2 until the East Brebes toll exit have been operational since June 2016.
Although the Pemalang-Batang toll road, which spans 39 km, is also targeted for completion in December, the minister has also made assurance that it could become functional and be used by travelers during the Lebaran exodus in June 2017.
"The Pemalang-Batang toll road has several sections, with soft soil, hence it needs special treatment, such as the use of the vacuum method for its construction," the minister noted.
By the end of this month, the use of the vacuum method would be evaluated to check whether it could be completed. If not, another solution will be sought, so that the toll road will remain functional during the Lebaran exodus next June.
Currently, the construction work on the Pemalang-Batang toll road is 6.63 percent complete, and 80.80 percent of the land clearance process has been completed.
In the meantime, several sections of the Batang-Semarang toll roads, whose construction began in April 2016, have been operational. It has a total length of 75 km, with 5 sections. Its construction has reached 10.95 percent completion, with the land clearance process reaching 65.15 percent.(A014/INE)EDITED BY INE
(T.A014/B/BESSR/A. Abdussalam) 11-01-2017 15:25: |
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