Prabowo's Government Asked To Take Advantage Of Trains And Sealines To Distribute Logistics

Chairman of the Indonesian Road Development Association (HPJI), Hedy Rahadian (Tsa Tsia/VOI)

JAKARTA - Chairman of the Indonesian Road Development Association (HPJI), Hedy Rahadian hopes that the Prabowo-Gibran Rakabuming Raka government will optimize other routes for logistics distribution. Trains or use of sea routes are said to be a solution.

This was conveyed in a seminar entitled Uncovering the Strategic Program of the New Government and Challenge Solutions Towards Indonesia Gold 2045 at the University of Indonesia, Salemba, Central Jakarta.

"If the distance is close, the road is indeed efficient. But, if the medium distance is a train that is more efficient and if the distance is (path, red) the sea with mass transportation," said Hedy, quoted on Thursday, September 19.

He said the train and sea lines could be an alternative because road infrastructure in the country to distribute logistics still contains a number of problems. The first is inadequate national roads.

"Currently, logistics lines in Indonesia on national roads are only owned by the islands of Sumatra and Java," he said.

The second problem is traffic jams that affect delivery times, said Hedy. He said this condition resulted in an increase in logistics costs, causing losses.

The amount of losses due to this condition, continued Hedy, could reach US$4 billion or equivalent to 0.5 percent of Indonesia's gross domestic product (GDP).

Next, Hedy also highlighted the problem of trucks that exceed the dimensions and loads, aka over-dimension overload (ODOL), causing the road to be damaged. "This has not been completed until now," he said.

Hedy said it was time for the government to optimize other routes in the future. Indonesia is considered to be able to imitate developed countries in Europe whose logistics distribution is 20 percent by train and 10 percent of them use sea routes.

He is optimistic that the Prabowo-Gibran government can create various improvements. The Presidential Decree (Keppres) on the national logistics system is expected to continue.

"Currently the Presidential Decree is being prepared regarding the national logistics system. We hope that this will be continued by the new government," he concluded.