Magelang Residents Are Grateful For The Damaged Merapi Evacuation Access Road To Be Repaired And Inaugurated By Jokowi

JAKARTA - Residents in Sukomakmur Village, Magelang Regency, Central Java feel helped after the Muntilan-Keningar road, which is an access to the evacuation of Mount Merapi, has been repaired and inaugurated by President Joko Widodo.

"From Mount Merapi, almost every day now there is an eruption, so at any time if Mount Merapi erupts it can be easy to evacuate residents," said one resident, Ani, in a statement quoted by ANTARA, Monday, January 22.

Ani said the condition of the Muntilan-Keningar road before it was reconstructed looked porous. He hopes that the repair of this road will not only facilitate access to evacuation, but also have an impact on the economy of local residents.

Another resident, Sumedi, who has a restaurant business around the Muntilan-Keningar road, assessed that the reconstruction of the road provides many benefits, especially for his business.

"There are many benefits. Hopefully the evacuation will be easier and faster to anticipate the eruption of Merapi which was so strong that it would be faster and increase the smooth economy of the community, especially around the Dukun (District)," said Sumedi.

He also expressed his appreciation for President Jokowi for building infrastructure on the slopes of Merapi so that residents feel safer if at any time a disaster occurs.

President Jokowi inaugurated the Muntilan-Keningar, Sukomarmur, and Petung-Pakis roads in Magelang Regency as implementations of Regional Road Presidential Instructions (Inpres) in Central Java Province.

The four roads have a length of 18.2 kilometers with a construction cost of Rp31.9 billion.

Jokowi explained that the PUPR Ministry built the road not with asphalt, but with concrete rigids to make it more durable, considering that many sand trucks were passing by.

"We hope that the construction of this road is not with asphalt, but with this concrete rigid will provide efficacy, because what passes here is large sand trucks so that they are built with concrete rigids. We hope this will last longer," said the President.