Jakarta. President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has just inaugurated the first phase of the Bangkinang-Pangkalan section of the toll road that connects the Riau capital of Pekanbaru and its West Sumatra counterpart, Padang.

The first phase of the project has now linked Bankinang and the XIII Koto Kampar sub-district, which are located in Riau province. The freshly launched 24.7-kilometer toll road cost the country around Rp 4.8 trillion ($295 million), according to Jokowi. The construction works began in 2019 before reaching completion this year. 

“We can now use this [Bangkinang-XIII Koto Kampar] toll road,” Jokowi said at its inauguration ceremony on Friday. 

“This toll road should be designed to connect to productive areas, be it agricultural areas, plantations, or tourism so we can provide truly tangible benefits to the people and the regional economic growth. It should also help expedite the movement of people and goods so we can compete with other countries,” Jokowi told the sub-national government heads. 

Jokowi has been ramping up infrastructure works in an attempt to boost economic growth and attract investors into the country. The toll road was not the only infrastructure project Jokowi had launched that day. The outgoing president also inaugurated the renovations of 10 roads -- spanning 63 kilometers -- in Riau. The roadwork costs totaled Rp 369 billion. 

With Bangkinang and Koto Kampar connected, this marks a key building block to an even larger, more ambitious infrastructure development: the Trans-Sumatra toll road. This 2,704-kilometer toll road will connect Lampung and Aceh.

The total costs to build the Bangkinang-Koto Kampar toll over the past five years are equivalent to how much the government has spent in building Indonesia’s new capital Nusantara so far in 2024. The Finance Ministry recently reported that the government’s spending for Nusantara had reached Rp 4.8 trillion in the first four months of 2024. 

The government had already spent approximately Rp 89.8 trillion so far this year in infrastructure works across the archipelago as of April 30, government data showed. 

The contractors for the Bangkinang-Pangkalan Phase 1 project are the state-owned construction firms Wijaya Karya and Hutama Karya.

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