Jakarta – The construction of a bridge on the Trans Papua road in Nduga, West Papua, will be finished by the army (TNI AD). The construction of the bridge was postponed following the December 2 fatal shooting of construction workers by the West Papua National Liberation Army.

Papua XI National Road Planning Agency (BPJN) head Osman Marbun said that the construction of the bridge in Nduga regency has been handed over to the army’s Zipur Battalion for a number of reasons, one of which is the problem of security.

“It is now certain that work on the construction of the bridge in Nduga regency will be assigned to and done by the Zipur [Battalion] and will be done from both directions, namely from Batas Batu and from Wamena”, said Marbun as quoted by the Antara state news agency on Monday January 28.

Marbun said that they initially planned to build 21 bridges in Nduga and five of these have recently been finished. Because of this, the construction of the 16 remaining bridges will be assigned to Zipur and are scheduled to be completed this year.

Initially the bridges were to be build by the state-owned construction companies PT Istaka Karya and PT Brantas Adibraya. The attack on the construction workers in Yigi district however, which resulted in 17 PT Istaka employees being killed, has resulted in deep trauma.

“Several difficulties, particularly security, were the reason for reassigning the work on the bridge in Nduga”, said Marbun. (rvk/fai)

[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was “Pembangunan Jembatan Trans Papua di Nduga Dilanjutkan TNI”.]

Source: https://news.detik.com/berita/d-4404616/pembangunan-jembatan-trans-papua-di-nduga-dilanjutkan-tni