Deputy Minister of Public Works and Public Housing of the Republic of Indonesia John Wempi Wetipo, Monday (this morning,red) planned to visit the location of Trans Papua road.
"I will come down to the site on Monday to ascertain the condition of the road. Because according to the information not only landslides that occurred, but also some bridges are damaged," he said.
Wempi said that the previous construction of Trans Papua Road has had a positive impact on the economy in this region.
One of them is the decrease in the price of goods in the mountainous region of Papua.
"Therefore, the construction of Trans Papua road will continue by the central government in the near future.
"Moreover, the road construction budget is already in place in several stages, but the covid-19 pandemic makes the PUPR budget of 76 Trillion IDR cut, so that we temporarily delay its construction," he explained.
He is optimistic that the construction of the Trans Papua road will be completed 100 percent before President Joko Widodo ends his term.
Currently, Trans Papua road access is temporarily closed due to landslides at 382 km before Yahuli Bridge, 392 km Kali Edan, and about Kali Wara 425 km.
Head of National Road Implementation Center of Jayapura, Edu Sasarari in his office, Thursday (07/01/2021), stated that the access section of Trans Papua Road, Jayapura-Wamena was temporarily closed due to landslides.
It said it was not yet certain when Jayapura-Wamena access would be reopened. Because of the avalanche that occurred in the field, in addition to the road was cut off. One of the bridges had to suffer considerable damage.
"We see from this road already entered in Balai Wamena, but we need to tell all road users who cross Jayapura-Wamena that for a while we are closed, while repairing this avalanche," he concluded.