Director General (Dirjen) of Bina Marga Arie Setiadi Moerwanto made a field visit to East Java on Wednesday (8/2). Arie checked the condition of national roads in the province which were damaged due to high rainfall and flooding intensity. Roads visited include the Manyar-Sadang, YOUNGAK and flood areas in Sampang and the Pasuruan Palace.

Responding to the condition of damaged national roads in the East Java region, the Director General of Bina Marga ordered the Head of the National Road Implementation Agency (BBPJN) Region VIII I Ketut Darmawahana to take care. Ketut also stated that his party had and would continue to improve road conditions even though it was still a temporary emergency.

"Given the conditions that are still raining and some are also flooded, what we do is to close the potholes. We closed the hole again. The handling will be like this for a while, until the end of the rainy season which is expected to end in one more month, "said Ketut.

Previously, at a Press Conference, Monday (6/2) night in Jakarta, Arie was aware of residents' complaints about damage to national roads in several locations, for that he assigned BBPJN / BPJN Heads throughout Indonesia to immediately take care of these roads. In order to deal with the frequent rain in the field, the Heads of Balai are asked to do temporary handling first, and then to make permanent repairs after the rainy season.

Arie said, his side received a lot of input from the community, local government (local government) and the police regarding the condition of road damage. Road damage includes, among others, some spots on the Java North Coast road (Pantura), both the West Java, Central Java and East Java sections.

During his visit to East Java, the Director General of Highways also had time to meet the East Java Governor, Soekarwo and the Regent of Pasuruan, Irsyad Yusuf. Arie came to the Welang river in Kraton Pasuruan which overflowed and caused flooding. He said, there were proposals to build a fly over on the bridge. However, currently it is still in the study stage.

To normalize the river itself, the Director General of Highways has coordinated with the Directorate General of Water Resources through the Great East Java River Region. Normalization will begin in April. According to Arie the river normalization is important to prevent flooding and inundation of the Pasuruan-Probolinggo Pantura road.

In addition, the Directorate General of Highways also encouraged the acceleration of the development of the Pasuruan-Gempol toll road. Arie said, for land acquisition in the Pasuruan region it had been 100 percent completed, but for the Gempol region towards Pasuruan it still had to be accelerated. Encouragement was also carried out for the realization of the new Probolinggo-Banyuwangi toll road at the location determination (blocking) stage. (KompuBM)