Joint venture to build new toll road
JAKARTA (JP): State-owned toll road operator PT Jasa Marga, PT Mawatindo Road Construction and Malaysia's Esprit Group Berhad yesterday agreed to set up a joint venture to build a toll road between Semarang and Demak in Central Java.
"Hopefully, within three months we can finalize the formation of the joint venture and start building the toll road," Jasa Marga's president, Maryadi Darmokumoro, said yesterday at the signing of the joint venture agreement.
He said the joint venture company, PT Marga Mawatindo Esprit, would be 10 percent owned by Jasa Marga, 55 percent by Mawatindo and 35 percent by Esprit Group.
According to Maryadi, the 24-kilometer toll road project has been approved by the minister of Public Works, but the joint venture is yet to be approved by the finance minister and the justice minister.
Maryadi confirmed it was almost certain the government would let the joint venture build the Semarang-Demak toll road.
The planned road, estimated to cost Rp 515 billion (US$221.99 million), is to be built by Marga Mawatindo Esprit under a 30- year build-operate-and-transfer agreement.
Jerry Goh, the Esprit Group's chief executive officer, told reporters the project would be 25 percent funded by the joint venture's equity and 75 percent by loans from the state-owned Bank Negara Indonesia 1946 and Perwira Affin Merchant Bank, a Malaysian company owned by military and private businessmen.
The toll road, scheduled to open by the year 2000, is not included in the government's toll-road program. But, according to a government regulation, a private company can offer to develop its own toll road after conducting a feasibility study.
"So yes, this joint venture company will have the toll road contract without a tendering process from the government," Maryadi said.
Mawatindo President Sutijono Wiknjosubroto said the Semarang- Demak toll road would be a pilot project for Central Java.
He said the road would be part of his company's plan to build a 50 km Semarang-Demak-Kudus toll road, which is considered an important route for the northern part of Central Java. (bnt)