Reviewing The Repair Of Solo-Purwodadi Road, Jokowi: It's Never Been Finished Since I Was A Kid

President Joko Widodo (Photo: Doc. Kemenpupr)

SRAGEN - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) accompanied by the Minister of Public Works and Public Housing (PUPR) Basuki Hadimuljono and the Governor of Central Java (Central Java) Ganjar Pranowo inspected the repair of the Surakarta-Geyer-Purwodadi road in Kalijambe District, Sragen Regency, Sunday, July 23.

This section is a logistics road with provincial road status handled by the Ministry of PUPR in accordance with Presidential Instruction (Inpres) Number 3 of 2023 concerning Accelerating Improvement of Regional Road Connectivity.

President Jokowi said the Surakarta-Geyer-Purwodadi section was categorized as heavily damaged which must be handled immediately by the Ministry of PUPR.

"Especially for this road, from a young age I pass here every day, it never ended. But if the construction is like now, it is twice as expensive, but the use can be more than 10 years. (So) We count it for the long term, cheaper. In the short term it is indeed more expensive," said Jokowi, Sunday.

Jokowi added that the Regional Road Presidential Instruction is a fiscal instrument sourced from the State Budget to improve regional road conditions, such as provincial roads and district/city roads nationally.

"We want to accelerate the handling of damaged regional roads, both provincial roads and district/city roads throughout the country. We budget for phase I of IDR 7.4 trillion and Phase II of around IDR 7.2 trillion for more than 2023," said President Jokowi.

Minister Basuki said that the handling of regional roads through Presidential Instruction 3/2023 in Central Java Province covers 25 157 km long roads with a value of around IDR 601.7 billion.

"Now that the e-Catalog is for the procurement of goods and services, hopefully, Tuesday (25/7/2023) will have signed the contract and will be carried out immediately," said Minister Basuki.

Minister Basuki said that for the repair of Surakarta-Geyer-Purwodadi road along 59 km, the PUPR Ministry had damaged the road before the Regional Road Instruction was issued. So that the rest will be handled through the Regional Road Presidential Instruction.

"We handle it and we divide this segment into 10 spots. Now the progress is 56%," said Minister Basuki.

The handling of the Surakarta-Geyer-Purwodadi section is carried out by the Ministry of PUPR through the Central Java-DI National Road Implementation Center (BBPJN) Yogyakarta, Director General of Highways since December 14, 2022 with a contract value of IDR 97.4 billion with implementing contractor PT Deltamarga Adyatama.

Sragen Regent Kusdinar Untung Yuni Sukowati expressed her gratitude for the handling of the Solo-Purwodadi Road that passed in Sragen Regency.

According to Yuni Sukowati, this road repair will increase productivity in logistics lines and access to tourism destinations, especially the Sangiran Purbakala Museum.

Also present to accompany, the Director General (Dirjen) of Highways Hedy Rahadian, Expert Staff of the Minister of PUPR for Technology, Industry and Environment Endra S. Atmawidjaja, Director of Preservation of Area 1 of Jalan and Bridge of the Directorate General of Highways of the Ministry of PUPR Nyoman Suaryana, Head of the Central Java-DI Yogyakarta National Road Implementation Center (BBPJN) Rien Marlia, and Head of the Bengawan Solo Maryadi Utama River Basin Center (BBWS).