"The progress is amazing. It has covered 8.5 km long. The area is used to be a swampy area, so the construction work is very complicated. The swamp had to be back-filled with soil at a deep of up to three meters," President Jokowi said.
The 22-km long toll road is expected to be completed in 2017 or early 2018.
The head of state expressed his appreciation for the progress of the project whose ground breaking event was held on April 30, 2015.
Jokowi was accompanied by South Sumatra Governor Alex Noerdin and Public Works and Public Housing Minister Basuki Hadimuljono on the occasion.
In South Sumatra, President Jokowi also checked preparations for mitigation efforts of haze disaster in the province.
The President was accompanied by National Defense Force (TNI) Chief General Gatot Nurmantyo, National Police Chief General Badrodin Haiti, and Head of the National Disaster Mitigation Board (BNPB) Syamsul Maarif.
Shortly after arriving in Palembang, the President and entourage went straight to the meeting room at Sultan Mahmud Badaruddin II Airport to hold a closed-door meeting to coordinate forest and land fire mitigation efforts in the province.
Jokowi told reporters that the closed-door meeting only discussed efforts to mitigate hotspots so that their impact will not spread.
According to the Presidential Bureau, the President wants the haze disaster to be handled quickly and properly.
The President and entourage later inspected the preparations made by haze disaster mitigation command post in Ogan Komering Ilir and Musi Banyuasin districts.
The BNPB said earlier land and forest fires affected the provinces of South Sumatra, Riau, West Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan and South Kalimantan during this years drought.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2015
