Jakarta. “Father of infrastructure” is among the nicknames that Indonesia’s outgoing leader Joko “Jokowi” will be remembered as.

It is only a matter of days until Jokowi steps down and hands over the top government job to his successor Prabowo Subianto. Jokowi -- who has led the country since 2014 -- is synonymous with massive infrastructure development. And that includes the construction of the Trans-Java highway, which seeks to connect the cities of the populous Java island. The toll road spans over 1,167 kilometers, and it took six presidents to connect the western and eastern parts of Java. The construction of this megaproject dates back to 1978. In 2015, Jokowi decided to speed up its construction. The Jokowi government completed 616 kilometers of the Trans-Java toll road within 2015-2018 alone. Data also showed that 90 percent of the roads of the Trans-Java highway were built during the Jokowi era.

“Indonesia has significantly sped up its tollway infrastructure development over the past decade under Jokowi. Tollways aim to make it easier to travel from one place to another, and also to spur regional economic growth. As we know, infrastructure is one of the greatest challenges to growth,” Tulus Abadi, a representative from the government's Toll Road Regulatory Agency (BPJT), said, not long ago.

“Infrastructures like toll roads also give a boost to tourism,” Tulus said.

Setijadi, the chief executive officer of logistics-related research body Supply Chain Indonesia, said that the Trans-Java toll road had cut the logistics travel time by a third. 

“If we wish to travel from Jakarta to Surabaya via the North Coast road [Pantura], it takes around 36 hours -- or about one and a half days. The [Trans-Java] toll road has drastically cut the travel time to just 12 hours,” Setijadi said, while adding that this could enable transporters to have more deliveries within one day.

The Trans-Java toll road can help lower transportation costs for businesses, including the inbound deliveries of their raw materials. This can enable the said businesses to set more competitive prices for the customers, according to Setijadi.