Toll road network to be expanded

JAKARTA: State-owned toll road operator PT Jasa Marga disclosed on Wednesday plans to expand its toll road network early next year to improve the flow of traffic in and out of Jakarta and several major cities in Java.

Jasa Marga's director of development and commerce Frans S. Sunito said that the company was planning to widen the Pondok Aren-Ulujami toll road and begin construction of the Cikampek- Padalarang toll road early next year.

In addition, the company is also planning to participate in the construction of the Semarang-Solo toll road in Central Java, the Jakarta Outer Ring Road (JORR) project, and the Surabaya- Mojokerto toll road project in East Java, he said.

"Our participation will be between 10 percent and 15 percent in the Semarang-Solo toll road, up to 40 percent in JORR, and about 30 percent in the Surabaya-Mojokerto road," Frans said.

The company's finance director Djodjo Subagdja said that Jasa Marga would finance the projects either from bank loans, by issuing bonds in the stock market, or from the money market.

"We have a pretty high rating in the stock market, our rating is A plus there, so people are not hesitant to invest with us," he said.

Djodjo said that the company would give priority to issuing bonds in the stock market and that it was expected to do so early next year or when the projects started.

"We will probably issue a maximum of Rp 2.2 trillion worth of bonds," he said. -- JP