Sea Highway opens logistics route to 3TP area

Barometer.co.id-Jakarta. The seventh president of the Republic of Indonesia, Joko Widodo, launched a maritime toll program at the start of his term in 2015. At the beginning of its launch, many people wondered how it was possible for Indonesia, an archipelagic country, to build toll roads and bridges over vast seas and straits.

However, after receiving clear and detailed information, what is meant by maritime tolls is to use the sea as a sea route to distribute various basic needs in various regions, the public understands.

One of the major programs of the Cabinet Government at the time was to speed up and streamline the transportation of goods by sea, or what was called the Marine Toll Program.

In principle, the concept of maritime highways is a regular and scheduled transportation from the west to the east of Indonesia in order to strengthen maritime and logistics routes.

Since the launch of this program in 2015 until the end of Joko Widodo's term, the implementation of the maritime highway program continued to be optimized so that the impact could be felt directly by the community. The maritime highway should help reduce logistics costs and reduce disparities in the prices of goods.

The maritime highway is one of the National Strategic Programs (NSP) which is part of the third Nawacita of President Joko Widodo's government, namely to develop Indonesia from the periphery by strengthening the regions and villages within the framework of a unitary state.

The concept of maritime highways based on Presidential Regulation Number 27 of 2021 is the implementation of sea freight transportation services from ports to other ports using the mechanism for implementing public service obligations for the transport of goods.

The implementation of the maritime highway program is expected to improve the logistics transportation process in Indonesia. In this way, the process of distributing goods (especially food) in Indonesia becomes easier. It is hoped that this will have an impact on the more equitable distribution of commodity prices throughout Indonesia.

Data from the Ministry of Transport shows that freight routes and ship fleets participating in the maritime toll program have seen a significant increase, particularly in 3TP (underdeveloped, border, outermost and border) areas, in order to support more efficient logistics distribution.

In 2015, a maritime toll service was launched which connects points in the west and east, increasing from 3 routes initially to 39 routes in 2024. Meanwhile, the number of ships which was initially only from 3 in 2015 has now increased to 39 ships in 2024.

Then, in terms of the number of ports of call, from only 11 ports initially in 2015, it has increased to 114 ports in 2024.

During the 10 years of serving the Indonesian people, the Sea Toll Road has seen a significant increase in terms of the number of routes, cargo and ship fleet. The quantity of cargo has increased from 2015, which contained only 30 tons with 88 TEU, to 989.75 tons with 31,878 TEU in 2024.

In the 10 years of the maritime highway's journey, this is not to say that we have not encountered any obstacles. One such obstacle occurs when a ship can load basic goods from west to east, but when returning from east to west it does not carry the goods, resulting in losses to the operator of the vessel. Despite this, it cannot be denied that the benefits of this program have been appreciated.

Building a sea toll road has a number of advantages, including that it is useful for achieving connectivity or connecting everything easily and quickly. The distribution of food and basic commodities to Indonesia's western and eastern regions is faster thanks to the sea toll road.

With the sea toll road, it becomes faster and easier for ships to reach their destination. The price of goods can also decrease by 20 to 30 percent compared to transportation not via toll sea routes.

Another advantage is that the existence of this program should be able to reduce the number of unemployed people in Indonesia, as the infrastructure in each region of Indonesia is improved, the quality of tourist attractions also increases in order to open up new employment opportunities.

The maritime toll road continues

On several occasions during the campaign and the presidency of the new government of President Prabowo Subianto and Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka, inaugurated on October 20, 2024, there was never a question of whether it would be maintained or stopped.

However, the Ministry of Transportation (Kemenhub) proposed that the maritime toll program continue. This program is part of the then-President Prabowo Subianto administration's strategic plan to improve connectivity and distribution of goods across Indonesia.

“What is clear to us, from the Ministry of Transport, in particular from the Directorate General of Maritime Transport, is that we will request that this maritime toll be maintained (in the new government),” said the director of traffic and maritime transport of the general directorate. of Maritime Transport, Ministry of Transport, Hartanto.

The reason from the Ministry of Transportation is that this sea toll road is a superior program because it can reduce price disparities in eastern Indonesia, especially in the 3TP areas (underdeveloped, border, outermost and border ). Apart from this, the marine highway program is a superior program. Thanks to this program, connectivity is better achieved, areas are easily accessible and price disparities are not great.

Regarding the seriousness of the Ministry of Transportation in continuing the implementation of this program, it can be seen that the ministry proposed a budget for the maritime highway program of IDR 1,124 trillion in 2025.

The community, especially the inhabitants of the 3T zone, hopes that this maritime road transport will continue to operate, although there are still things to be optimized, for example the provision of ships, as well as punctuality of arrival and departure of ships.

Considering the benefits experienced over the past 10 years, the new government of President Prabowo Subianto and Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka certainly hopes that this program can continue to operate. Maritime highways can bring benefits not only to trade in general, but also to activities in the 3TP (ANTARA) area.

By Ahmad Wijaya