"In fact, 65.4 percent of the land allocated for the project has been cleared overall, and compensation of Rp5.2 trillion has been granted," the director of the technical development department of the Road Construction Directorate of the Ministry of Public Works, Subagyo, said here on Thursday.
He added that land had been cleared for the Pemalang-Batang and Batang-Semarang toll road sections. The process had earlier been very slow in these sections, with only some 4 percent completed since 2008.
Even though the process was slow in these two road sections, land clearance for the remaining eight sections were on track, he noted.
As a matter of fact, the clearance of land for the Cikopo-Palimanan and Kanci-Pejagan toll sections was completed.
"When the public works and peoples housing minister visited the Cikopo-Palimanan toll road section, the progress of its land clearance process looked encouraging. Six sections of the toll road with a total length of 116 kilometers were completed," he affirmed.
Moreover, the project operator (BUJT) did not face any difficulties because the land for the toll road was already available.
Subagyo pointed out that the two sections for which land clearance had been completed had moved on to the construction phase. Therefore, these sections are expected be ready for operation by June 2015.
The Cikopo-Palimanan section, which covers 116.75 kilometers in the Cikampek lane till Palimanan, is expected to be ready for use next year during the Idul Fitri holidays.
The Trans-Java toll roads with 10 sections, which stretch from West Javas Cikampek to Cirebon and from Semarang in Central Java to Surabaya in East Java, are urgent projects that aim to reduce traffic congestion and to cut logistics transportation costs.
It was earlier reported that the Cikampek-Surabaya Trans-Java toll road would have nine sections. These included stretches from Cikampek to Palimanan, Semarang to Solo, Solo to Ngawi, Ngawi to Kertosono, and Mojokerto to Surabaya, with a total length of 658.6 kilometers.
Cikampek is already connected with a toll road to the Merak Harbor area, where ferries serve commuters who wish to cross the Sunda Strait to Sumatra.
(A014/INE)
EDITED BY INE .
Editor: Suryanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2014
