The AMIN National Team Calls Anies' Promise To Expand Railways To Balance The Construction Of The Jokowi Era Toll Road

Presidential Candidate Anies Baswedan

JAKARTA - Spokesperson for the National Team for the Winning of Anies-Muhaimin (AMINAl National Team) Usamah Abdul Aziz explained the intention of presidential candidate number 1, Anies Baswedan, who plans to increase the construction of railway lines when elected in the 2024 General Election.

According to Usamah, Anies' desire to activate a railway network in various regions in Indonesia is not interpreted as an antithesa of President Joko Widodo's policy of intensively building a toll road for thousands of kilometers.

However, Anies wants to balance the composition of existing infrastructure development by the government in the previous period.

"In fact, with Pak Jokowi building a toll road that is quite massive, at this time it seems that we also need to be balanced with the railway line. This is part of the relay. So, if the previous President has built a lot of toll roads, maybe the next President also needs to think about the railway line," said Usamah at the AMIN Winning House, Friday, December 8.

Moreover, according to Usamah, the addition of the railway line that Anies initiated was aimed at streamlining logistics costs distributed to various regions.

"When talking about logistical issues, talking about certainty of departure, cheap transportation, it can be answered by train. At affordable prices, we can move to several areas," explained Usamah.

Previously, presidential candidate number 1, Anies Baswedan revealed that he prefers to increase the operation of the railway network in Indonesia as access to transportation.

The areas promised by Anies during the campaign in the last few days include the double track rail line on Kertapati-Tanjungkarang-Bakauheni, as well as the railway network connecting Banjarmasin and Banjarbaru.

Anies' view is different from President Joko Widodo's policy which during his reign in the last two periods has intensified the construction of toll roads of up to thousands of kilometers.

This was conveyed by Anies in an online presentation at the Indonesian Transportation Community National Working Meeting, Wednesday, December 6 evening.

"We hope to further activate the inter-regional railway line, especially on the island of Java, there are many railroad lines that need to be reactivated," said Anies.

The former governor of DKI Jakarta views that it is necessary to increase the number of train fleets operating. Thus, the intensity of the departure of the fleet per day is still slightly improved. This, continued Anies, will also change the habits of people who have preferred to use private vehicles.

According to him, activating lanes and adding inter-regional rail networks is more efficient and has a maximum function than toll roads.

"This investment can actually be smaller than building toll roads, having a higher safety, then the effect of pollution is also lower, and will be able to build a higher sense of equality compared to being based on private vehicles," he added.