Bina Marga Prepares Funds For Disaster Emergencys Of IDR 200 Billion Per Year

Director General of Highways of the Ministry of PUPR Hedy Rahadian (right). (Photo: Theresia Agatha/VOI)

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Public Works and Public Housing (PUPR) through the Directorate General of Highways has prepared a budget of hundreds of billions in anticipation of disaster emergency management in the country.

"At the PUPR Ministry, especially the Directorate General of Highways, we always allocate an emergency disaster budget, amounting to around Rp. 200 billion per year," said Director General of Highways of the Ministry of PUPR Hedy Rahadian at a press conference in Jakarta, Wednesday, February 8.

Hedy said the funds were used to deliver heavy equipment during natural disasters such as earthquakes, landslides, resulting in the closure of national road access.

Furthermore, post-disaster infrastructure management can be carried out by the Ministry of PUPR and the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB).

"We can see that (handling) is permanent, if the budget is there, we will do it, which is a national disaster status," said Hedy.

On the other hand, Hedy said, his party was evaluating all the cliffs in the active fault as a measure to anticipate the earthquake disaster in Cianjur, some time ago.

"Priority areas are those who have high population density traffic to minimize the number of victims when an earthquake occurs," he said.

Until now, the Directorate of Road and Bridge Tennis Bina is still collecting data and analyzing the number of slopes that need to be strengthened.

Therefore, said Hedy, his party does not yet know the amount of budget that will be prepared for the program.

"I haven't been able to get the numbers out, because we are still waiting for the results of the calculations, how much it takes to strengthen or increase disaster resistance," he concluded.