"The construction will proceed as scheduled, it will not be delayed. we are optimistic about it although a presidential regulation on its construction has not yet been issued," Public Works Minister Djoko Kirmanto said here on Friday.
Djoko said his ministry would continue to do its best so that the presidential regulation on the construction of the bridge would be issued. "We will continue to do our best so that the presidential regulation will be issued soon," he added.
The draft of the regulation was now being evaluated by the cabinet secretariat after it was evaluated and signed by the public works minister and the chief economic minister.
Earlier, the Indonesian Young Entrepreneurs Association (HIPMI) had asked the government to speed up the issuance of the presidential regulation on the development of the Sunda Strait Bridge.
General Chairman of HIPMI Raja Sapta Octohari said the construction of the bridge would help boost the Master Plan for Acceleration and Expansion of Indonesia`s Economic Development (MP3EI).
"Not only that, it could also reduce logistics cost significantly," Raja said. HIPMI hopes that the presidential regulation would have been issued by the first semester of 2012 at the latest.
The Sunda Strait bridge which has a length of 29 km and will connect Java and Sumatra will be the longest bridge in the country if the project is realized.
It is expected that the corner stone of its construction would be done in 2014 and it would be built for a period of 10 years.
According to plan, the bridge would have been operated in 2025.
(Uu.A014/HAJM)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
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