JAKARTA. State-run construction company Hutama Karya this year expects to begin the development of a 2,700 kilometers toll road project linking Bakahuni Port in Lampung to Banda Aceh in Nanggroe Aceh province as part of the company’s toll road business expansion.
Corporate secretary Ary Widiyantoro said the company was still waiting for the government regulation on the official appointment to carry out the Trans Sumatra toll road project, which is estimated to cost about Rp 351 trillion (US$36.15 billion) to build.
“The regulation is being finalized right now. We expect to start on one out of five sections of the Trans Sumatra project before the end of this year. We are looking at the most prepared section to be developed so that we can speed up construction,” Ary told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.
The sections will include Bakauheni–Terbanggi, Palembang–Indralaya, Pekanbaru–Kandis–Dumai, Medan–Kuala Namu and Medan–Banda Aceh.
“Based on our business plan, we expect to complete all sections at the end of 2025,” he said.
He said that the firm had recently set up a toll road development division that would be headed by a senior vice president to better manage the new sector.
The Trans Sumatra toll road will connect to the Sunda Strait Bridge, which is slated to be built in the near future and would be part of the Asian Highway Network. The Sunda Strait bridge will connect Merak Port in Merak, Banten, and the Bakahuni port in South Lampung.
Both projects are aimed at supporting the Master Plan for the Acceleration and Expansion of Indonesian Economic Development (MP3EI), announced by the government in 2011.
Previously, State-Owned Enterprises Minister Dahlan Iskan said the Trans-Sumatra toll road project would seek funds from various financial sources. Hutama Karya will also receive capital injection from the government to partly finance the project.
According to the Public Works Ministry highway director general Djoko Murjanto, the most prepared section was the 22.4 kilometer road section linking North Sumatra’s capital of Medan with Kuala Namu, where a new airport will commence operations in August this year.
He said the land acquisition process along the section had reached almost 60 percent and that the project was expected to be completed at the end 2015. “We are continuously monitoring the land acquisition process and are working closely with related stakeholders to accelerate the project,” Djoko said.
The government has secured a $240 million soft loan from Export-Import Bank of China to help finance several parts of the country’s toll road projects, including the Medan–Kuala Namu segment, he said.
In addition, Ary said that Hutama Karya had secured contracts worth Rp 10.6 trillion for engineering, procurement and construction projects this year.
As of February, the firm had started projects worth around Rp 3 trillion such as Bosowa cement plant and coal-fired steam power plant (PLTU) Takalar in South Sulawesi, as well as a passenger terminal at Supadio Airport in Pontianak, West Kalimantan.
“We plan to issue up to Rp 750 million in bonds to help finance our business expansion this year,” he said, adding that most of the projects were multiyears that would be completed in 2014 and 2015.
The firm expects to increase its revenue by 13 percent this year to Rp 6.5 trillion.
(Nurfika Usman/The Jakarta Post)
