BINA MARGA (SIKKA) Commission V of the Indonesian House of Representatives paid a working visit to Maumere City, Sikka Regency, East Nusa Tenggara for two days, Friday and Saturday (3/05).

In this visit, the chairman of the House of Representatives Commission V, Fary Djemy Francis asked the Directorate General of Highways through the National Road Implementation Agency (BPJN) X to take care and mitigate road slides to ensure connectivity in the Maumere and surrounding areas.

Furthermore, Fary wanted BPJN X to conduct an evaluation and data collection on the location of roads with a potential for landslides. From this data collection, BPJN will prepare heavy equipment around the landslide location.
 
"So that if a landslide occurs, treatment can be immediately taken to open access. After the access is reopened, we will only think about repairing the road. The important thing is that it can be passed first," said Fary.

The condition of the crossing in NTT indeed passes through many hilly areas with high bends and grades and is prone to landslides like in Flores.

When met on the same occasion, Head of the Regional Road Implementing Work Unit of Region 4, NTT Province, Herman Dohi said landslides often occurred in the Gako-Agela, Agela-bts section. Ende City, and Ende-Wolowaru.

"Many pass through steep cliffs, often landslides and cause congestion," said Herman.

Herman hopes that the priority of handling the location of the road body that is prone to landslides and threatened to break because the landslide handling has not been included in the planning document. "Maybe it needs to be made a priority for handling in line with the input of Commission V," said Herman.

PJN 4, NTT Province itself oversees Nagekeo Regency, Kab. Ende, Kab. Sikka, Kab. East Flores, Adonara Islands and Kab. Lembata

For information, this year there are 9 preservation packages, 3 bridge replacement units with a total of 39 meters, and 4 suspension bridge units totaling 315 meters. The total funding for the 4 preservation 547 km is Rp. 175 billion

The Chairperson of Commission V also appealed to the public to provide information to BPJN X if it encounters a landslide that has exceeded 24 hours so that it can be quickly handled.

In the long term, Commission V sees the need to develop new alternative roads in locations that often have landslides. "If every year a disaster landslides occur, we have already thought of new alternative ways. So we need a design," he said. (Ian)