Minister of Home Affairs: National Road 3, 100 Percent Functional in 10 Provinces

JAKARTA - The Minister of Home Affairs (Mendagri) and Chairman of the Task Force (Kasatgas) for the Acceleration of Rehabilitation and Reconstruction (PRR) after the disaster, Sumatra Tito Karnavian, stated that all national roads in Aceh, North Sumatra, and West Sumatra had returned to 100 percent functional.

"For land access to national roads in Aceh, North Sumatra, West Sumatra, it is 100 percent functional," said Tito, Wednesday, February 18.

Tito said that the improvement of regional roads in the three provinces also recorded rapid progress, all three recorded functionality above 90 percent, with details of regional roads in Aceh functional 92 percent, North Sumatra functional 99 percent, and West Sumatra functional 90 percent.

In addition to national roads, the national bridges in the three provinces are also 100 percent back in operation, although some are still temporary using Bailey bridges, Armco, and other technical repairs.

The Minister of Home Affairs explained that the repair of regional bridges was still being rushed, especially in Aceh which had a progress of 47 percent, North Sumatra 95 percent, and West Sumatra 69 percent.

Tito emphasized that the PRR Task Force had given special attention to the restoration of access to national roads, because road access was the main foundation for accelerating logistics distribution, community mobility, and the recovery of economic activities in the affected areas.

The government has also deployed the support of the TNI and the National Police in the construction of emergency bridges. The TNI built 62 units of Bailey bridges, 74 units of Armco, and 37 pioneer bridges, while the National Police built 41 units of bridges in various affected areas.