Jakarta (ANTARA) – The government has allocated a budget of Rp32.7 trillion (around US$2.21 billion) to fix damaged roads across Indonesia during the 20232024 period, as stated by Public Works and Public Housing Minister Basuki Hadimuljono on Monday.He made the statement in response to several complaints posted by internet users concerning damaged roads in their regions. The minister underlined that the government has prepared the budget through the Finance Minister as a follow-up to Presidential Instruction (Inpres) No. 3 of 2022 on Regional Roads Connectivity Improvement Acceleration. He explained that, in the first stage, his ministry has proposed repairing roads in several regions, including Lampung, with a budget of Rp14.9 trillion (around US$1.01 billion). The proposed budget of US$1.01 billion meets the road readiness criteria in accordance with Inpres No. 3 of 2022. He noted that roads in districts or cities have become a concern due to their large number. “The national road is like a tree. The trunk is the national road, the branches are province roads, and the twigs are the district or city roads,” he said. Thus, the number of national roads is fewer than provincial roads, and in turn, the number of provincial roads is fewer than district and city roads. ccording to Hadimuljono, not all district or city governments have the budget capacity to fix road infrastructure. The complaints concerning damaged roads were delivered by citizens through the comments section of a video uploaded by President Joko Widodo on his Instagram account. Widodo uploaded the video while inspecting one of the damaged roads in Lampung. After he posted the video, the comments section was flooded with complaints, reaching more than 100,000 comments.
Source: Antara News Agency