PELNI GEARS UP TO FERRY EID TRAVELERS

By Andi Abdussalam

Jakarta, June 10 (Antara) -- As witnessed in previous years, the annual exodus of travelers following the fasting month of Idul Fitri (Eid Fitr) or Lebaran, which falls on July 17 this year, is expected to rise 2 percent to 20 million.          A week before (D-7) and a week after (D+7) D-Day is when there is a rush of travelers. They will take means of sea, land or air transportation, with some visiting their hometowns using private vehicles and others, public transport.          As Indonesia is an island country, inter-insular travelers will use air or sea transportation systems.          For travelers intending to use sea routes, state-owned shipping company PT Pelni is preparing itself to cater to them. Based on data available on its official website (http://www.pelni.co.id), PT Pelni predicts that the volume of its passengers for Lebaran this year will increase 2 percent from 763,916 in 2014 to 779,194 this year.          To meet this rise in demand, Pelni opened ticket sales on June 2. Its ships will operate to ferry passengers to their destinations in the D-15 to D+15 period, i.e. from July 2 to August 2.          In anticipation of the surge in the number of passengers, Pelni will deploy 26 ships, 12 of which are type 2000 (2,000 beds), 9 are type 1000 (1,000 beds), 3 are type 500 (500 beds) and 2 are ropax vessels.            However, the company will restrict the sale of tickets to prevent the number of passengers from exceeding the capacity of the ships. During last year's Lebaran transportation, Pelni did not apply this limitation, which led to an excessive number of passengers.          This year, Pelni will limit the number of its ships' passengers based on a regulation of the Ministry of Transportation that it should not exceed 135 percent of the ships' capacity. Last year's error when the number of passengers reached 400 percent of the capacity will not be repeated. "We will give priority to safety," it affirmed.         Following the imposition of a single class policy, Pelni will increase the capacity of its ships to 5,000 beds. Since January 2015, the cabin rooms of its ships have been altered from executive class to economy class.         "Apart from the KM Kelud, Tidar and Tatamailau ships, we altered the class system so the type 2000 vessels can have 350 additional beds and type 1000 ships can have 150 additional beds," the company said.         Moreover, Pelni's branch office in Sampit, East Kotawaringing district, Central Kalimanatan, has prepared three additional ships to ferry passengers along with the three regular ships that currently operate for the province.         "So far, three ships have been serving passengers regularly in Sampit. They are the Binaiya, Leuser and Sirimau ships. We will operate additional vessels to accommodate passengers during the Lebaran festivities this year. They are the Kelimutu, Lawit and Bukit Raya ships. These six ships will have 20 departures from D-15 to D-2," the head of the Sampit branch of PT Pelni, Lamson Ompusunggu, stated on Tuesday.          He added that providing these extra ships was part of efforts made by Pelni in anticipation of a surge in the number of passengers who will depart from Sampit in Central Kalimantan to Semarang (Central Java) and Surabaya (East Java).          After all, Sampit port authorities predicted that there will be a 3.24 percent increase in the number of travelers as compared to that last year.         While passengers began to flow to the port last year on D-15, it was from D-7 to D-2 that it saw the peak rush. Therefore, it should be anticipated, Ompusunggu pointed out.         He further noted that having ships with a capacity to hold 1,324 to 1,527 passengers, all passengers can be transported. Also, there is another ship, Dharma Lautan Utama (owned by a different shipping line), which serves passengers at the port.         Pelni will obey the government's regulations on transportation capacity, he emphasized.        "We should not repeat our mistake last year, when a ship was loaded with 4,000 to 5,000 passengers. With the 20 departures we have planned, we can ferry all passengers based on the ships' capacity.  During the peak flow period from D-15 to D-2 last year, Pelni transported 23,967 passengers. This year, based on the 3.24 percent increase predicted, Pelni's Sampit branch office is expected to transport some 25,000 travelers," Ompusunggu explained.          Moreover, the Sampit port administrator's office estimated that the number of passengers this year will increase by 3.24 percent. While the number of travelers increased to 29,119 last year, the port administrator predicted that it will reach 30,000 passengers this year.         The number of Pelni's passengers is also expected to increase in Papua. The PT Pelni office in Jayayapura predicted that the number of passengers in the province will increase by 5 to 10 percent.         "We predicted that it will increase by 5 to 10 percent from that last year," Rey Manurung, the head of PT Pelni for Jayapura, said on Monday, adding that his office has prepared the best measures to ensure passengers' safety.          "In previous years, we stressed the importance of taking all passengers. Now, we will take them based on the ships' capacity," Manurung stated.          He pointed out that Pelni in Papua now operated six ships. They are KM Nggapulu, KM Dorolonda, KM Dobonsolo, KM Sinabung, KM Gunung Dempo and KM Ciremai. Each of them has the capacity to accommodate more than 2,000 passengers.          However, there is no plan to increase the number ships operating yet.          The PT Pelni office in Tanujngpinag in Riau Islands province, Sumatra, has no such plan either.          "We have no plan yet to increase the number of ships to cater to inter-insular Lebaran travelers. So for now, we will continue to operate four ships---KM Umsini, Sinabung, Lawit and Bukit Raya," Yursal, the head of Pelni for Tanjungpinang, remarked in Tanjungpinang on Thursday last week.          He added that Pelni can operate additional ships if the number of passengers increased sharply and the Directorate General of Sea Transportation gave a permit. "We can increase the number of ships from four only if the number of passengers shows a sharp rise and the Directorate General for Sea Transportation implements an instruction to that effect," Yursal pointed out.          Last year, the number of passengers during Eid Fitr did not increase significantly in Tanjungpinang.     ***4*** (T.A014/INE) EDITED BY INE (T.A014/A/BESSR/Yosep) 10-06-2015 18:02: