"This is a heavy task. Land transport generally witnesses traffic jams. I hope to coordinate well with the traffic police," Transportation Minister Ignatius Jonan said.
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Millions of post-fasting or Lebaran travelers will start homebound exodus this week for the Lebaran festivities and family reunions in their respective hometowns.

Transportation Minister Ignatius Jonan said the government will give priority to the safety of the travelers during the exodus, a tradition that marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadan every year.

In 2015, for example, some 11.36 million Lebaran revelers across the country headed for their hometowns. Seven hundred people lost their lives in accidents that year.

Therefore, the Transportation Ministry will focus on providing safety and ensuring there are no traffic jams, as per President Joko Widodos orders.

"Based on the directives of President Jokowi, two things must receive attention during the current Lebaran exodus, namely eliminating gridlocks as people travel back to their homes or when they return, and providing maximum safety during the trip," Minister Jonan told a press conference on Friday (June 24).

The minister will coordinate with the police, particularly the traffic police and the directorate generals of sea, air and land transportation, as well as with the regional governments.

"This is a heavy task. Land transport generally witnesses traffic jams. I hope to coordinate well with the traffic police," he said.

Regarding the safety of travelers, Minister Jonan said he has ordered all sectors to conduct ramp checks to determine vehicles physical condition. Often, when accidents happen, it is found that private vehicles and motorcycles are mostly involved.

A total of 50 thousand vehicles for land, sea and air transportation were checked and will be deployed to cater to the needs of the travelers. Some 48,000 buses, 447 train locomotives with 1,400 carriages, 1,273 ships and 552 airplanes will be operated.

"All modes have been checked. Physical examination of vehicles was carried out till June 24, 2016. Checks were not carried out just randomly, instead these were checked one-by-one," Jonan said.

Chairman of the House's Commission V on transportation affairs, Fahry Djemis Francis, asked travelers, popularly called pemudik, to give priority to their safety.

He said he had visited Surabaya, East Java, to observe the readiness of land, air and sea transport means. He urged public transportation drivers to exercise caution while driving.

The legislator said the House hoped that unlike last year, when accidents had claimed the lives of 658 people, no such mishaps will happen this year. "I hope that the number of such accidents would decline this year. A large number of accidents, up to 70 percent, last year involved riders of two-wheel vehicles," Francis said.

"It is an onerous task. While the number of those dying in accidents usually increases every year, we will do our best to reduce the number of casualties," he said. After all, the number of motorcycles used by Lebaran travelers this year is expected to increase by 50 percent, 5.6 million units this year, up from 3.7 million last year.

He said last year, the Traffic Police Corps (Korlantas) and the National Police had deployed personnel to form a human fence while handling traffic flow at certain points. I hope that this year also, they will take similar steps during peak hours of traffic.

Commission V also held meetings with the Korlantas as well as the transportation ministry to discuss efforts to ensure the safety of travelers, such as checking the health and physical condition of drivers.

"We hope that there will always be new breakthroughs in reducing accidents on the roads during Lebaran traveler exodus, not only on land but also in air and sea," he said.

During a meeting with the House Commission, Minister Jonan said his ministry has checked 552 airplanes, 39 percent more than those operated during Lebaran transportation season last year.

According to Director General of Sea Transportation Antonious Tonny Budiono, physical checks were also conducted to evaluate the seaworthiness of 1,273 ships that will ferry Lebaran travelers.

Lebaran transportation season for land and air transportation this year will last for 22 days --- 12 days before D-Day 1 and 10 days after D-Day 2. However, the sea transportation season will last for 37 days --- 18 days before D-Day 1 and 17 days after D-Day 2. The D-Day 1 and D-Day 2 will respectively on July 6 and July 7, 2016.

Minister Jonan said his ministry will increase the number of ships if the number of passengers drastically increase. Now about 1,200 ships, which increase by about two to three percent from that last year, will cater passengers.

"Regarding trains, there are about 447 locomotives. 350 trains with 1,600 passenger carriages are now operating," Jonan said.

President Director of Railway company PT Kereta Api Indonesia (KAI), Edi Sukmoro, said recently in Cirebon, West Java, that this year, about 5.3 million travelers will use trains as their mode of transportation to go to their home towns.

"Last year, the number of train passengers during the Lebaran travel period had reached 5.1 million. If this year the number of passengers using trains reaches 5.3 million, it would mean a 5.5 percent increase," he said.(*)

Reporter: Andi Abdussalam
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2016