Govt to build 10,000 km of roads

JAKARTA (JP): The government will construct new roads with a total length of over 10,000 kilometers during the Sixth Five Year Development Plan (Repelita VI) period, Minister of Public Works Radinal Moochtar says.

"During the current five year plan, which began last month, the government will also set up new bridges and repair old ones with a total length of 85,000 meters, in addition to the maintenance of existing infrastructure," Moochtar said at the opening of an annual conference on road construction in Bandung, West Java, yesterday.

The three-day conference was attended by some 1,500 participants, including 51 representatives from Malaysia, Australia, the United States and Britain.

During the conference, the minister called on local authorities to get involved more intensively in the development of roads in support of the government's decentralization policy.

Syarifudin Alambai, the director for road development for the Ministry of Public Works, said road expansion during the Repelita VI period will cost around Rp 22 trillion (US$10.2 billion), of which Rp 17 trillion will be paid for from the state budget and the remaining Rp 5 trillion with overseas borrowing.

He said that in the current fiscal year, the government will allocate Rp 3.7 trillion for the construction of new roads and bridges.

"Most of the new roads will be constructed in eastern provinces," Alambai stated.

117 papers on road construction and development will have been presented at the conference when it ends tomorrow. (fhp)