Jokowi Claims to Have Started Road Repairs in Lampung, Jambi

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo said that road repairs in several regions have started. Previously, the President visited several areas to inspect the road conditions and instructed that the road repairs be taken over by the Central Government.

"Currently in every province, the repairs have kicked off, whether it's in the region I visited in Lampung, Jambi, and North Sumatra, or other provinces," said Jokowi in Bengkulu, on Thursday, July 20, 2023.

The President targeted that all road repairs will have begun at the end of July 2023. He mentioned that damaged roads inevitably existed in every province. 

Central Government took over the road repair project

Previously, President Jokowi has repeatedly said that the central government would take over the road repairs in several regions. He also said this after observing the damaged roads in Sialangtaji Village, South Waluh District, North Labuhanabtu Regency, with North Sumatra Deputy Governor, Musa Rajekshah on Friday, May 19, 2023. After witnessing the road condition, he promised to start the road repair in July 2023. The Central Government is taking over the project since the regency, city, and provincial governments directly asked for help. "So we will take over the project to help the province, regency, and city, in July at the latest," said Jokowi.

President Jokowi also visited Gelam River Regency, Jambi on Tuesday, May 16, 2023, to inspect the road conditions. Accompanied by the Ministry of Public Works and Public Housing, President Jokowi passed the heavily damaged road. The road was damaged throughout 4,600 kilometers from a total of 10,000 kilometers. Half of the damaged road was regency road. After passing the route, Jokowi instructed the ministry to repair the damage as soon as possible.

"We will start the repair in July - August. The province road will also be taken over by the Central government since the logistics road and province road are essentials, so we will prioritize them," said Jokowi.

The President also did a sudden inspection of the damaged road in Lampung Province. Based on the inspection, Jokowi announced that the budget for repairing the damaged road in the province amounted to Rp800 billion. The inspection was conducted after the 2023 Eid Al-Fitr holiday, considering the heavily damaged nature of the roads in Lampung. "Specifically for Lampung, for approximately the repair of 15 roads we will allocate Rp800 billion," he announced.

The road repairs in Lampung and other provinces could be attributed to Bima Yudho Saputro, a college student from Lampung, whose viral video encouraged people from other regions to document their own areas' damaged roads. This attracted the attention of President Jokowi and prompted the inspections.

M. JULNIS FIRMANSYAH

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