Govt Denies Recent Work Accidents Caused by Rushing Deadline

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Public Works and Public Housing (PUPR) Minister Basuki Hadimuljono denied that the recent series of work accidents in the past few months were caused by working too hard to rush the deadlines. He claimed that infrastructure projects in Indonesia are executed under a normal process.

"There is no correlation between expediting work and work accidents," Basuki said Padang Pariaman Regency, West Sumatra on Friday, Feb. 9.

Read: 10 Workplace Accidents at Construction Projects in Indonesia

Previously the House’s Commission V member Nurhasan Zaidi criticized the incident. He believed that infrastructure construction should not be done in a rush to prevent work accident.

Basuki said that infrastructure projects seem to be done too fast since a lot of projects are done in one period of time. The fact is, Basuki went on, Indonesia lags behind other neighboring countries. "Our infrastructure work is nothing compared to that of other countries," he said.

Furthermore, Basuki also compared that 1,000 kilometers toll road built in five years in Indonesia is much less than the Philippines targeting 4,000 kilometers roads in one year.

Read: VP Kalla Highlights Numerous Construction Accident in Indonesia

Nevertheless, PUPR Ministry, Basuki continued, carried out an evaluation from every aspect from working hours to human resources. He revealed that the majority of accidents took place during holidays and in the evening. "Perhaps we need to relax a little bit, avoid heavy work at night," he added.

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