| By Andi Abdussalam |
Jakarta, Sept 18 (ANTARA) - The reverse flow of this year's Idul Fitri or Lebaran exodus is expected to peak on Saturday or Sunday as millions of travellers are due to resume their routine activities on Monday after week-long reunions with family or relatives in their respective home towns or villages. Millions of seasonal passengers traveled to their home towns for the reunions during the annual post-fasting Lebaran holidays. "It is expected that the peak of the returning flow of Lebaran travellers will take place today," Ahmad Saputra, a spokesman of the Senen Railway Station in Central Jakarta, said here on Saturday. He said that the number of Idul Fitri travelers arriving at Senen station on Saturday was expected to reach 16 thousand. "I think the figure will not be too far from that arriving on D-Day plus four which reached 14,755 passengers," he said. Ahmad said that the number of arriving passengers on D-Day plus one (Sunday), plus two and plus three was only about 6,000 per day but it jumped on D-Day plus four to 14,755 passengers. On D-Day plus five it reached 14,858 and on D-Day plus six, the number of arriving passengers dropped to 11,771. Up to 11,30 hours on Saturday, a total of 8,396 returning passengers had arrived at the station on 18 trains. A total of 12 other trains had yet arrive. During this year's lebaran festivities, railway company Perum Kerta Api fielded 30 trains from Senen station, of which 20 trains were regular ones and 10 others were additional. In the meantime, the reverse flow of Idul Fitri travellers, both with vehicles or in person, on Saturday began to show density at Bakauheni port in the eastern tip of Sumatra which connected Merak port in the western tip of Java. Based on ANTARA's observation, thousands of passengers continued to flow and packed the waiting room of the ticket counters. They stood in queue to get their turn to purchase ferry tickets to cross the Sunda strait from Sumatra to Java. Most of passengers came from Rajabasa Main Bus Terminal in Bandarlampung which is one of the last bus terminals which connect passengers with other cities in Sumatra. Private vehicles, both two wheel and four or more wheels, has also flowed since in the morning creating long queues and accumulations. Based on data at Bakauheni command post, at least 408,526 returning Idul Fitri travelers have been ferried by the inland waterway transportation service PT ASDP from Bakauheni port of Lampung Merak port of Java. The figure was based on accumulative data of returning travellers from Sunday (Sept 12) to early Saturday at 00:00 Western Indonesia Standard Time (WIB). The number of passengers ferried from Bakauheni to Merak on the D-Day plus one last Sunday reached 52,000, on the D-Day plus two 74,496, on D-Day plus three 81,009, on the D-Day plus four 80,219, on the D-Day plus five 60,125 and on the D-day plus six (last Friday) 59,793. On the D-Day plus three, the number of travelers was the highest one because the day was the end of the joint holidays announced by the government. In the meantime the number of vehicles transported from Bakauheni to Marak since the D-Day plus one to plus seven was recorded at 81,642 units. It consisted of 41,214 two wheel vehicles and 40,328 four or more wheel vehicles. The highest number of vehicles ferried took place on the D-Day plus three when it reached 16,879 units of various vehicles such as private cars, motorcycles, buses and trucks. Before the Idul Fitri holidays, PT ASDP recorded at total of 427,073 home-bound travellers who travelled to Sumatra from Java with vehicles amounting to 93,389 units, of which 44,131 were two wheel motor vehicles and 49,000 were four or more wheel vehicles. For the time being, the ferry service company has recorded 408,528 travelers who have returned from Sumatra to Java since the D-Day plus one with 81,642 vehicles, of which 41,314 were two wheel and 40,328 where four wheel or more. Meanwhile, the peak of the reverse flow of Idul Fitri travellers in East Java was expected to take place on Sunday. PT ASDP predicted that travelers from East Java through Ketapang port to Bali would peak on Sunday. "The movement of travelers' flow through Ketapang port could already be observed this evening and tomorrow. Sunday would be the last day of travellers' days off," PT ASDP Manager for Ketapang Charda Damanik said on Saturday. He said that schools would also begin their classes on Monday so that it was predicted that Sunday was the last holiday. Thus travellers who would be ferried to Bali would peak on Sunday. Damanik said that PT ASDP would not put into operations 28 units of ferries which had been prepared before because Uma Kalada ferry which replaced KMP Bontang Kaltim (now docking in Surabaya), would have its operation permit expired on Saturday. "Therefore, we will optimise the operations of KMP Uma Kalada today and tonight," he said. The number of travelers who were ferried to Bali on Friday up to 00:00 hours on Saturday was recorded at 8,323 passengers with two wheel vehicles reaching 5,291 and four wheel ones recorded at 1,176 units. The total number of travellers who had returned to Bali since the D-Day plus one was recorded at 206,068 with total two wheel vehicles at 33,132 and four wheel ones at 23,345 units. In the meantime, the total number of travellers crossing from Bali to Java during the D-Day minus seven to minus one was 110,223 persons, two wheel vehicles 3,745 and four wheel ones 18,883. During the Idul Fitri holiday season last year, the number of home-bound travellers reached 27.25 million, of which 16.2 million used various public transportation modes while the remaining 11.2 million used private cars and motorcycles.***4*** |
Minggu, 19 September 2010
RETURNING TRAVELERS FLOW
Sabtu, 28 Agustus 2010
LEBARAN TRAVELERS NEED SAFETY GUARANTEE
Jakarta, Aug 28 (ANTARA) - The exodus of millions of annual home-bound travelers is expected to start in the next two weeks and will peak one day before the post-fasting Idul Fitri or Lebaran holidays which begin on September 10, 2010.
If the number of travelers this year is similar to that in 2009, it means that about 27 million Lebaran revelers will be returning home-towns to have family reunions and to celebrate Lebaran festivities. Last year the country saw about 27 million travelers using all modes of land, sea and air transportation means throughout the country.
However, the conditions of this year's roads and other infrastructures are not as good as those last year while the number of travelers is expected to increase. Thus, there is high accident potential and health disturbance.
Therefore, the government should guarantee the safety and health conditions of Lebaran travelers.
"Every year we have a routine problem in the runup to Lebaran holidays. We could not provide optimal services for travelers. Safety is often ignored, like using passengers and goods packed ships. But we cannot do much because we were demanded to transport them although the vehicles had been overloaded," Abdul Hakim of the House of Representatives (DPR)'s Commission V for transportation affairs, said.
Therefore, the House Commission V asked all sea, land and air transportation operators as well as those traveling on private cars or motorcycles to give priority to safety.
He said that during Lebaran, where the number of travelers increase sharply, the safety and rights of passengers to obtain proper services were often ignored. Besides matters about overloaded, the conditions of sea, air and land transportation means such as train and buses should also be checked first.
If the vehicles are not feasible to be operated the government should firmly ban them from operating. "Drivers and Skippers have no choices other than paying attention to passengers safety in an effort to avoid the occurrence of undesired incidences. Buses and ships should be loaded based on their capacity. The feasibility of the vehicles should be checked before they are operated so that accidents could be minimized," Hakim said.
He predicted that the traffic flow of this year's Idul Fitri travelers could not be well organized because most of road sections were damaged. This is because the number of this year's travelers for land transportation alone is expected to reach 15.5 million, or an increase of 6.35 percent from that in 2009.
Bad road infrastructures have caused frequent traffic accidents. So, Hakim called on the Ministry of Public Works to repair soon damaged roads so that travelers would be provided relatively better services.
He said that road infrastructures in Java, Sumatra and Sulawesi at present are in bad conditions. The damages happened to national, provincial and district roads. In a number of damaged sections, repair is being done but still it is hampered with bad weather. The same is also true to the train services which are expected to experience slight disturbance.
The railways near Lapindo in East Java could experience floods when rain falls due to disturbance of mudflow.
He said that there was no reason for the central and regional governments not to repair damaged roads. This matter has been stipulated in Law No. 22 / 2009 on Traffic and Transportation.
In the meantime, in order to guarantee travelers' health conditions, Health Minister Endang Rahayu Sedyaningsih on Friday checked preparations for health services for home-bound travelers.
"Health preparedness along the home-bound routes is urgent because the travelers may need treatment for serious illnesses or life-threatening conditions," the minister said.
The health ministry has set up 500 health posts to serve home-bound travelers during the Idul Fitri holidays for 24 hours a day throughout Indonesia.
The government, in this case the ministries of health and transportation, as well as relevant agencies, will also launch joint operations to secure Idul-Fitri travelers in Java and Sumatra highways. The joint would be carried out in 15 locations of Java and Sumatra highways.
She said that the health ministry would conduct health checks on drivers for public vehicles. "We will check the health conditions of drivers to see whether they are fixed to drive or they are free from alcoholic drinks. If they are not well enough we will ask them to take a rest," she said.
Besides, the health ministry will also distribute health vests to travelers at health-care posts set up on road sides of certain sections of the highways.
The health care posts are set up to anticipate possible acute illnesses such as diarrhea and food poisoning.
Along the Java-Lampung route, the government has made available 3,719 community health posts, 1,229 ambulances, 98 state-run hospitals plus ambulances, and 500 health posts consisting of 418 posts from local health services and 82 from local seaport health offices.
The health ministry has also prepared a health information command post located at The Rapid Response and Perceptive Center (PTRC), the Public Communication Center, with phone numbers: 021-500567 and 30413700; and e-mail address at
Dehydration and communicable diseases are feared to afflict Idul Fitri travelers on their home-bound trips to celebrate the post-fasting holidays.
(T.A014/a/H-NG/a014 ) 28-08-2010 17:38:5