President Joko Widodo has assured that the 2022 Eid homecoming flow in various Indonesian regions has been smooth.
“I see that everything is going well,” Widodo said after meeting Yogyakarta Governor Sultan Hamengkubuwono X at the Yogyakarta Palace here on Monday.
Regarding the long queues of vehicles at Merak Port, Banten, the President said that the volume of vehicles exceeded the capacity of the docks and ships.
However, he assured that the long queues could be reduced by increasing the number of ships and docks.
“The ships have been increased from 30 to 50, but it is not enough,” the President noted.
According to the President, the 2022 Eid homecoming flow was joined by around 85.5 million people traveling on 23 million four-wheeled vehicles and 17 million motorcycles.
“The numbers are really very large, so I urge you to come back early. Do not return on Saturday and Sunday, so there will be traffic jams, especially on toll roads and national roads,” he said.
At least 1,757,837 vehicles left Greater Jakarta area during the period from April 22 to May 1, 2022, or a day before Eid al-Fitr, state-owned toll enterprise PT Jasa Marga (Persero) Tbk reported earlier.
In a statement issued on Monday, Jasa Marga’s corporate communication and community development group head, Dwimawan Heru, informed that the figure is the cumulative traffic figure from four main toll gates (GT).
The toll gates comprise GT Cikupa (Merak), GT Ciawi (Puncak), GT Cikampek Utama, and GT Kalihurip Utama (Trans Java and Bandung).
“The total number of vehicles that left Greater Jakarta increased by 18.6 percent as compared to the normal period of November 2021, with the total of 1,482,047 vehicles,” he said.
The vehicles leaving Greater Jakarta were headed in three directions.
The majority of them, or 945 thousand vehicles (53.8 percent), headed east, namely to Trans Java and Bandung; at least 484,653 vehicles (27.6 percent) headed west, namely to Merak; meanwhile, 328,184 vehicles (18.7 percent) headed south, namely to Puncak.
Source: Antara News