Detik News in Sorong, West Papua
A key road in Sorong, West Papua province, which had been damaged for two years, has been hurriedly resurfaced in the lead up to a visit to the city by President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo.
President Widodo arrived in Sorong yesterday while visiting the Papuan region to officially open the National Games in Jayapura at the weekend.
The damaged section of Jalan Jenderal Sudirman, which is located right in front of a petrol station in the Klaligi area of Sorong Manoi district, was resurfaced with asphalt by the Public Roads Department and the West Papua Provincial Public Works office, reports the state news agency Antara.
The road, which has been damaged for two years, was repaired using a full armada of equipment.
Local people were surprised by the road repairs, saying they never suspected the road – which had been left damaged for two years – would be repaired in the lead up to Widodo’s visit.
Klaligi village resident Musa admitted to being surprised to see the full deployment of heavy machinery to re-asphalt the road, which until now had just been left damaged.
Musa said there had been frequent traffic accidents due to the damaged road.
Long-standing complaints
“After we checked, it turns out that there is to be a visit by the president to Sorong city on [Monday], so the road was immediately re-asphalted,” said Musa.
The head of the Sorong City Public Works office, J Sinaga, said that the community had already complained about the damaged road.
“But Jalan Jenderal Sudirman in Sorong city is not under the authority of the Sorong city regional government, but under the authority of the provincial [government] and the public roads [department]”, said Sinaga.
President Widodo traveled to Papua on Saturday to officially launch the opening ceremony of the 20th National Games (PON XX) at the Lukas Enembe Stadium in Jayapura.
Translated by James Balowski for IndoLeft News. The original title of the article was “Jalan di Sorong Papua Diaspal Jelang Jokowi Datang, Sudah 2 Tahun Rusak”.
