Toll road a blow for S. Sulawesi administration
UJUNGPANDANG, South Sulawesi (JP): Eastern Indonesia's first toll road project cannot be completed by the May 29 election day as scheduled due to land acquisition problems, officials say.
Built by PT Busowa Marga Nusantara, the 12-kilometer toll road worth Rp 120 billion (about US$51 million) will connect Makassar port with the Makassar Industrial Estate.
According to the original plan, the road would be dedicated on the same day as the container terminal at the Makassar port. The terminal's soft opening is scheduled for early next month.
The ambitious toll road project was initially scheduled to be completed in August 1998. The target was moved to May this year by the strong endorsement of Governor HZB Palaguna and Ujungpandang Mayor Malik B. Masry.
The 12-kilometer road is divided into two sections, which will require 4 hectares of land. The land will be used to build a toll gate and an underpass.
Besides, 115 families are yet to be relocated after they receive compensation. The most common problem in land acquisition is the owners' rejection of the level of compensation set by the government, which they consider too little.
Less than half of the construction in the sections had been completed at the end of last month.
The failure came as a heavy blow to local government officials who want to use the project as a showcase of their economic success. It has also prompted PT Busowa Nusantara to accuse the government's land appropriation committee of failing to do their job in time as promised.
South Sulawesi public works ministry office chief Sanapati Tarebbang told The Jakarta Post over the weekend that although land appropriation was an unquestionably complex problem, it should not have hampered the project.
He denied PT Busowa's accusation that the government had not been serious enough in handling the land acquisition. He pointed out that Masry had personally gone to the field to help smoothen the job.
"The contractor could have done parts of the project where the land has been acquired while waiting for other places under dispute with the farmers," he said.
Sanapati charged that the project was a failure because the government has run out of cash and PT Busowa Nusantara refused to fund it. The government will only reimburse it as an emergency step.
However, he admitted that, from the outset, it would have been wrong to expect the road to be completed by the end of May due mainly to the complex budgetary and land acquisition problems.
Also expressing dismay was Maryadi Darmakumoro, the president director of state-owned highway company PT Jasa Marga.
He said land acquisition was the biggest hurdle for the project.
Project director Joni Kosasih said he had made an all-out effort to achieve the target but the land acquisition problem is beyond his authority. (37)