The progress is very good."Medan (ANTARA News) - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has expressed his joy over seeing the progress of toll road development project in Sumatra.
"The progress is very good," he said when inspecting the Medan-Kualanamu section here on Wednesday in the company of public works minister Basuki Hadimuljono and cabinet secretary Pramono Anung.
President Jokowi said there are three sections that are expected to be completed by the end of this year and in the middle of next year namely Medan-Kualanamu and Medan-Binjai and Kualanamu-Tebing Tinggi respectively.
"I hope the toll road would speed up flows of goods or commodities and in turn improve our competitiveness," the President said.
President Jokowi also praised the regional governments for their efforts to acquire lands for the project saying that the rate of land clearance was high reaching 97 percent.
The toll road sections would later be continued with the Tebing Tinggi-Simalungun section.
President Jokowi said that the government would not only develop toll roads but also railways.
He said with the acceleration in the development of toll roads the length of toll roads in the country would increase drastically in the next five years time.
In North Sumatra especially, he said, the length of the toll roads will increase by around 70 km by 2017 from only 34.8 km in 1985-2014 as reported by the director general of road development to more than 100 km.
(Reporting by Agus Salim/Uu.H-YH/KR-BSR/A014)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
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