Sumatra's East Coast Highway under repair

Oyos Saroso H.N. The Jakarta Post Bandarlampung

Repair work on Sumatra's East Coast Highway, which connects Sumatra with Java, is being carried out by South Sumatra and Lampung province in a bid to help develop the two provinces.

Ishak Mekki, chief of South Sumatra's Public Works Office, said the provincial administration had allocated Rp 15 billion in the 2002 fiscal year to repair the dilapidated highway connecting Palembang, capital of the province, with Jambi in the north and Lampung in the south.

"The project is under way and is expected to be completed by the end of the year," Antara quoted him as saying in Palembang on Tuesday.

The development of the 2,500-kilometer Sumatra East Coast Highway in the 1980s, connecting Bakauheni in Lampung and Banda Aceh in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam, has opened up numerous regencies in Sumatra and eased land transportation between Sumatra and Java.

He pointed out that the highway has almost been cut off because of weak law enforcement, which has caused serious damage to the highway over the last three years.

"The repair work is urgent. Next year, the provincial administration will improve the highway, so heavier trucks can use it. This project will cost Rp 340 billion," he added.

Ishak said the provincial administration was also carrying out repair work, at a cost of Rp 77 billion, on two highway sections between Muara Enim and Lahat and between Muara Enim and Baturaja.

In Bandarlampung, Lampung provincial administration spokesman Irwan Nurdaya Djafar, said the provincial administration has been allocated Rp 480 billion by the Japan Bank International Cooperation (JBIC) and its 2002 budget to repair the badly- damaged, 200-kilometer highway connecting Bakauheni and Tulangbawang.

"The highway has to be repaired because of its strategic location and its potential to spur Sumatra's economy. Provincial economic development would be seriously affected if the highway was cut off, because it acts as an artery road that, besides the central coast highway, connects Java with provinces in Sumatra," he said.

These road projects are being carried out in line with the joint decision, recently made by all the governors of Sumatra in Medan, North Sumatra, to repair the highway.

The highway has been repaired several times since the 1980s because there have been no restrictions on heavy vehicles.

Jumli Hasan, chief of Lampung's Public Works Office, said all regencies in the province were obliged to financially assist the projects due to regional autonomy legislation.

"Regencies should help fund these road projects because they have benefited the most from them, through imposing levies on all vehicles, which has helped boost the local economy," he added.