President Jokowi Inaugurates New Toll Road in North Sumatra
Jakarta. President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo inaugurated a new 52-kilometer toll road in North Sumatra on Friday (13/10), the government announced in a statement received by the Jakarta Globe.
A 41.7-km stretch of the toll road links Medan-Kualanamu-Tebing Tinggi-Parbarakan-Sei Rampah and the rest, stretching for 10.5 km, links Medan and Binjai.
"This toll road will have a huge impact on North Sumatra. It will expand the metropolitan area of Medan-Binjai-Deli Serdang-Karo into the third largest metropolitan city in Indonesia," the president said in a Facebook post on Saturday.
The toll road connects important economic hubs in North Sumatra, including Medan's industrial area, Kualanamu International Airport, Kuala Tanjung Port, Sei Mangke special economic zone and Lake Toba.
There is also a plan to connect Medan and Tebing Tinggi with a new 56-km toll road by mid-2018.
"Soon every spot [in North Sumatra] will be linked to the Medan-Kualanamu-Tebing Tinggi-Pematang Siantar-Parapat toll road. Travel time from the Kualanamu International Airport to Lake Toba will be slashed from four to five hours to only two hours," Jokowi said.
Tourism Minister Arief Yahya said the new toll road will make it much easier for tourists to visit Lake Toba — one of Indonesia's priority tourist destinations.
"The new toll road offers a new access point to Lake Toba. Silangit Airport will soon become an international airport, drawing even more tourists to the great lake. Lake Toba is going to be a world-class destination soon," the minister said.
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