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
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