The History Of The Bocimi Toll Road: Stalled From The New Order Era, Seriously Built In The Jokowi Era

Officers passed around the collapsed toll road on the Bocimi KM 64 toll road, Sukabumi, West Java, Thursday, April 4, 2024. (Between)

JAKARTA - No one doubts the massive development of the New Order era (Orba). All kinds of projects can be launched. The Bogor-Ciawi toll road construction project, and Sukabumi (Bocimi) are among them.

Instead of running smoothly, the construction of the Bocimi Toll Road stalled. The economic crisis is behind it. However, the Joko Widodo (Jokowi) government came to be a savior. The project, which has been stalled for a long time, will be revived. In fact, the Bocimi Toll Road is used as a National Strategic Project (PSN).

Narratives of toll road construction can bring abundant profits, not mere empty messages. The presence of toll roads can shorten access to distance and time from and to an area. The excitement is predicted to be able to make economic growth to many areas increase.

Suharto and the New Order Government (Orba) understand this very well. They then made the toll road construction project focused. The New Order then launched the presence of the Bocimi Toll Road in 1997. Any effort is made so that the toll road construction runs smoothly.

Problems arise. The presence of an economic crisis leads to disaster. New Order no longer has the power to continue the Bocimi Toll Road project. The New Order's power is on the brink of being the estuary. Suharto and New Order stepped down in 1998. This condition made the Bocimi project stalled.

Suharto's successor is still busy restoring turmoil after the economic crisis. The intention to continue the Bocimi Toll Road project was only present again in 2007. At that time, the signature of the Toll Road Concession Agreement (PPJT) was already at the Bukaka Teknik Utama Consortium.

The agreement did not necessarily make the construction of the toll road run immediately. The groundbreaking was only carried out in 2011. Development has stalled again and changed investors, from being in the hands of PT Bakrie Toll Road to a subsidiary of BUMN, Waskita Karya.

Efforts to take over the project were carried out as a form of the seriousness of Jokowi's government in development. Jokowi understands very well if private companies are no longer able to carry out development. Waskita Karya immediately laid the first stone again in 2015.

The Bocimi toll road which has a length of 54 kilometers will be divided into four sections. Section I Ciawi-Cigombong, Section II Cigombong-Cibadak, Section III Cibadak-Sukabumi, Section IV West Sukabumi-East Sukabumi.

Of the total 54 kilometers of the Bocimi toll road, this is in section I along the 15 kilometers progress, there is no problem, the land (land) has been completely cleared, construction continues, there is no problem. I think the progress here is good. No, there is no delay. No delay. No. This year."

"We continue to accelerate this. We have to understand, it has been 1997 started, it has been started since 1997. Always when in the field I ask the manager in the field what the problem is. (Asked) No, it means it is in accordance with the existing progress," Jokowi explained as quoted by the Secretariat on June 21, 2017.

President Jokowi considers the construction of the Bocimi Toll Road important. He views that the presence of toll roads can provoke the passion for economic growth. Even the presence of the Bocimi Toll Road is very important to eliminate congestion at the Bogor-Sukabumi crossing.

Jokowi even visited many times the construction of the toll road since 2016. He asked Waskita to continue to build the toll road. Jokowi refused when Waskita conveyed that the Bocimi Toll Road target was completed in 2019. He asked for the toll road to be at least Section I finished in 2018.

Ulam's beloved peak arrives. The construction of the Bocimi Toll Road Section I Ciawi-Cigombong summarizes. Jokowi also inaugurated it on December 1, 2018. Jokowi hopes that the summary of Section I of the Bocimi Toll Road can be an effort by the government to summarize other sections.

This effort was added by Jokowi by becoming the Bocimi Toll Road as PSN in 2021. All of this was done so that economic development in Sukabumi increased. Mainly, in terms of tourism.

Section II was only completed and inaugurated by Jokowi on August 4, 2023. The rest are Section III (the plan will be inaugurated in mid-2024) and Section IV will be completed the following year. Problems arise. The Bocimi Toll Road Section II collapsed in April 2024.

Precisely, there was a landslide on the Bocimi Toll Road Section Two at KM 64. In fact, the toll road has not been inaugurated for a year. The collapse of the Bocimi Section II Toll Road is a homework that must immediately become the attention of the Jokowi government.

With the construction of the Bocimi Toll Road, Sukabumi-Jakarta travel time, which was previously around seven hours, during holidays or weekends, can now be taken in just four hours. This time efficiency provides opportunities for transportation entrepreneurs to be able to transport goods and services faster, more frequency, to provide benefits.

People are also motivated to be more productive, because they can do business twice as hard as possible. The cut time is a signal to increase profits. In addition, the social paradigm will also change. Everything that was initially hampered because of seven hours of old travel is now more likely to be realized," explained Darmawan Prasodjo in Jokowi's book Realizing Indonesian Dreams (2021).