INDUSTRY.co.id - Jakarta - President Joko Widodo has inaugurated the commencement of the Trans-Sumatera toll road section of Padang-Bukittinggi-Pekanbaru section I, namely Padang-Sicincin.

The inauguration was done through the ground-breaking ceremony held at the project site on Jl. Padang Bypass Km 28.

"Padang-Bukittinggi-Pekanbaru will stretch along approximately 244 km. We start from Padang to Sicincin along 28 km, "said Director of Hutama Karya, I Gustri Ngurah Putra in an official statement received Friday (9/2/2018).

The toll road project which is also included in the National Strategic Project list (Perpres No. 58/2017) will be carried out in several stages until 2025.

"The first stage is Padang-Sicincin, then from Sicincin to Payakumbuh along 78 km, to Payakumbuh-Base along the 45 km, then from Pangkalan to Bangkinang along 56 km, and finally Bangkinang-Pekanbaru along 37 km," he explained.

He added that the total investment of Padang-Bukittinggi Pekanbaru is Rp78.095 trillion. For the first phase of Padang-Sicincin approximately Rp4, 88 trillion.

Particularly for Section 3 Payakumbuh-Pangkalan, funding is planned to be obtained from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) with direct lending to Hutama Karya.

"In addition to direct lending, there will also be a loan to the Government specifically for the tunnel construction in this section as many as 5 pieces with a total length of 8.95 km," he added.

The Padang-Bukittinggi-Pekanbaru toll road section is part of 24 existing sections located on the Trans-Sumatera Toll Road. Toll roads carried out through the assignment of the Government of Indonesia to Hutama Karya (Presidential Decree No. 100/2014 & President Decree No. 117/2015) are worked in parallel since 2014.

Several Trans-Sumatra segments are now operating, such as the 11-km Medan-Binjai Section 2 and 3 (Helvetia-Semayang-Binjai) segments, the 8-km Palembang-Indralaya Section 1 (Palembang-Pamulutan) segment and the Bakauheni-Terbanggi Besar 1 (Segunda SS Port of Bakauheni-Bakauheni) along 9 km and package 2 (Segal Kotabaru-Lematang) along 5 km.