Industrial estates need more roads

JAKARTA (JP): Rapid development makes it imperative to provide more roads to facilitate the transportation of the raw materials needed by the industry in Karawang and Bekasi and to carry products to market.

Bambang Utoyo, the chief spokesman of the Ministry of Public Works, said that data indicates it is necessary to increase the road capacity of the existing arterial road in the industrial area and to build another arterial road alongside the Jakarta- Cikampek toll road.

"It is also important to increase the capacity of the roads connecting Cibinong, Citeureup, Cileungsi, Jonggol and Cianjur as an alternatives to the Jakarta-Bogor-Bandung highway," Bambang said.

"The development of the manufacturing sectors in the Bekasi industrial estate is rapid because it is supported by its strategic position, which is near Jakarta as center of government and business," Bambang said as quoted by Antara news agency over the weekend.

Bambang explained that among the existing facilities that support the development of Karawang and Bekasi as industrial areas is the Jakarta-Cikampek toll road, which connects those areas with Tanjung Priok harbor in North Jakarta.

He added that the rise in the number of people using the Jakarta-Cikampek toll road averaged 17.9 percent per year from 1991 into 1994. In 1991, 98,072 million vehicles used the toll road, with 110,319 million in 1992 and 138,405 million in 1993, and 160,248 million in the first part of 1994.

The arterial road is the busiest road with daily traffic of 60,807 vehicles at the Jakarta-Bekasi border, 46,047 at the Bekasi-Karawang border and 23,125 at the Karawang-Cikampek border. (yns)