The government has taken on the near impossible:
building 1,520 kilo-meters of new roads in less than two years on the harsh
terrain of Papua and West Papua the nation's least developed and isolated
provinces.
As no private contractors have the ability to do the
job using the allo-cated budget, the Presidential Unit to Accelerate the
Development of Papua and West Papua (UP4B) has turned to the Indonesian Military (TNI) for help.
According to the unit, the massive infrastructure
project will open the isolated provinces at a cost of Rp 1.5 trillion (US$154 million), also with the help of the Public Works Ministry
and local administrations.
A presidential decree expectecH be issued in the next
few months authorizing the TNI to do such work inside the nation's borders will
clear the way for more than a 1,000 soldiers from the Army's engineering
detachment to get to work.
If we depend on the ministry and local agencies to
build the roads, it will take around 60 years to complete." UP4B chief
expert Doddy Imam Hidayat said. "The TNI's deployment is aimed at speeding up the process at a
relatively low cost, as it is not seeking any financial profit."
Despite the province's annual budget of around Rp 40
trillion, the seventh largest in the
nation, Papua remains at the bottom of the list for infrastructure development.
Officials have said that the provincial budget has
been drained to cover expensive transportation costs and inflated prices
resulting from a lack of roads and ports.
"Jakarta thinks that we get a big budget that is
sufficient for development," Pegunungan Bintang deputy regent Yakobus
Wayam said. "They seem to be ignorant of the fact that most of the funds
have been spent on transportation costs.
He added that around 40 percent gf the regency's
budget went to subsidizing transportation.
With the intended road system, the UP4B wants to bring
down the prices of goods and materials so that regional budgets can be spent
efficiently on infrastructure development.
"The planned roads will also help accelerate the
expansion of health care and
education services for people living in the remote areas of the
provinces," Doddy said. (Rendi A. Witular), Sumber Koran: The Jakarta Post (26 Maret
2013/Selasa, Hal. 01)