New 140.9-km Sumatra toll road to be free of charge for a month

INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTS - JAKARTA. The government will start operating the 140.9-kilometer Bakauheni-Terbanggi Besar toll road in Lampung on Friday, after which it will be free for motorists for a month.

The road is part of the 2,765-km trans-Sumatra toll road project, developed by state-owned construction company PT Hutama Karya.

According to PT Hutama Karya president director Bintang Perbowo, it will be connected to three other toll roads from Lampung to the South Sumatra provincial capital of Palembang.

“After this, we will aim to complete the Terbanggi Besar-Pematang Panggang toll road, the Pematang Panggang-Kayu Agung toll road and the Kayu Agung-Palembang toll road,” Bintang said on Thursday.

He said the 365-km toll roads were scheduled to be completed in June to slash travel time from Bakauheni to Palembang to six hours from 12 hours on normal roads.

The trans-Sumatra toll road project was constructed based on Presidential Regulation (Perpres) No. 117/2015, which is a revision of Perpres No. 100/2004. The toll road project will connect Lampung province in the southern tip of Sumatra Island to Aceh province, the northern tip of the island.