Industrial estates need more roads

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)