Padang-Pekanbaru Toll Road to Serve as West Sumatra Infrastructure Backbone

The first construction phase of Padang-Pekanbaru Trans Sumatra tollroad has been inaugurated by President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo. The Padang-Sicincin portion of the toll road will serve as the backbone for the West Sumatra capital.

The Padang-Pekanbaru toll road will have a total length of 244 km and cost up to Rp 78 trillion. The first portion of the road connecting Padang and Sicincin will be about 28 km long. 

“When the construction finishes in 2023, the toll road will bring immense positive impacts on the economy of West Sumatra and surrounding region. It’s not only about transport of goods, but also tourist accessibility to the beauty of West Sumatra, in religion, culture, and nature,” the president said, as quoted by Okezone, Sunday (February 11).

The project has taken up about Rp 4.88 trillion, and will be continued with the next phase, which is the construction of the 87-km portion connecting Sicincin and Payakumbuh. The phase yet after will be the construction of the 45-km portion connecting Payakumbuh and Pangkalan.

Next will be the 56-km portion between Pangkalan and Bangkinang. The final phase will bring the toll road to completion, with the 37-km portion connecting Bangkinang and Pekanbaru. 

The toll road is expected to slash the time taken for the journey between Padang and Pekanbaru, from nine hours to only about six hours.

Longest tunnel

The mega-project faces challenges too, including hills that need to be pierced through with a tunnel. When completed, the tunnel will prove to be the longest in Indonesia, extending nine kilometers through Bukit Barisan and costing about Rp 9 trillion.

President Jokowi said that the Padang-Pekanbaru toll road would slash transport and logistics costs. This news certainly ignites hope among locals because goods would thus be more affordable.

The new infrastructure will make transport of goods by logistics service easier. People won’t need to wait for too long for supply of goods, especially staple foods.

Trusted logistics service providers such as SELOG, a subsidiary of PT Serasi Autoraya (SERA), will also expand further into the areas. As a company under Astra, SELOG offers professional logistics service.

SELOG gives guarantee of safety, on-time delivery, and undamaged shipments. Not only that, business people can use SELOG’s Warehouse Management System to continuously track packages from order acceptance, pick-up, delivery to order completion.

It is hoped that the life quality of the people living in West Sumatra and surrounding region can improve, and national competitiveness can increase so that a strong economy can be realized.