President Jokowi Review Road Project On Nias Island

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo is reviewing the project to improve the structure of the Laehuwa-Ombolata-Tumula-Faekhuna'a road in North Nias Regency, North Sumatra.

"I went to the field today (Wednesday), to Nias Island to North Nias, Nias, then at Gunung Sitoli and I will see what the national roads are like, and I have seen some of them, what the provincial axis roads look like, the district axis roads like what," President Jokowi said in a video on the Presidential Secretariat channel reported by Antara, Wednesday, July 6.

According to President Jokowi, the road infrastructure development is intended to build inter-regional connectivity on Nias Island.

When giving a statement after conducting the review, President Jokowi said that the government targets the construction of national road infrastructure in Nias to be completed by 2023.

"For this national road, the circumference is only 16 kilometers, God willing, next year everything will be completed because this really has to be made a new road," added the President.

The work to improve the structure of the Laehuwa-Ombulata-Tumula-Faekhuna'a road in 2022 is carried out with a budget of Rp. 32.36 billion.

This section is a fin road that connects the West Ring and East Ring of Nias, from North Nias to Gunung Sitoli City on Nias Island.

In addition to national roads, the President is also paying attention to the construction of provincial and district/city road axis. For provincial and district/city road construction projects, President Jokowi said that the local government together with the Ministry of Public Works and Public Housing (PUPR) would directly handle the matter.

"Then the provincial road should be handled by the Governor immediately. Then the regency, which I asked the Regent earlier, because the capacity of the APBD is not possible, so the Ministry of Public Works will take care of it later," said the President.

The President hopes that the improvement of the road structure can increase economic growth in Nias Island.

"So that the commodities here, including coconut, fish, and all of them, can enter the market and have good competitiveness if the infrastructure is ready, including for tourism, because surfing is very good here and is in great demand," added the President.