Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Ministry of Transportation (Kemenhub) is preparing additional transportation fleets on land, sea, and air to anticipate a surge in public mobility during the Christmas and New Year holidays.

"To ensure the services we provide, we have also prepared additional fleets in locations where there is a possibility that there will be additions so that we can ensure that the community will be served well. On the one hand, we can still maintain the health aspect,” expert staff on the logistics and multimodal sector at the Ministry of Transportation, Robby Kurniawan, said at an FMB9 Dialogue entitled "Infrastructure Readiness and Health Protocols,” which was followed online from Jakarta on Monday.

Based on a survey by the Transportation Policy Agency (Baketrans) of the Ministry of Transportation, 44.17 million people are expected to travel nationwide during Christmas and New Year 2022–2023.

The number of public transport passengers using land transportation modes (road transportation) during Christmas and New Year is estimated to increase by 12 percent compared to 2021–2022.

Meanwhile, the number of ferry passengers is predicted to increase 7 percent, rail transportation 127.6 percent, air transportation 53.4 percent, and sea transportation 156 percent.

As part of efforts to anticipate this surge in the number of travelers, the Ministry of Transportation has prepared as many as 57 thousand buses at 115 terminals and kept 910 sea transport ships on standby at 110 seaports.

In addition, the ministry has prepared 465 locomotives, 1,716 trains, and 77 diesel rail trains (KRDs) in 9 operational regions (daops) and 4 regional divisions (divre). "For flights, we have prepared 402 aircraft that are operational at 51 airports," Kurniawan informed.

The Ministry of Transportation has also prepared 205 ships to provide ferry services at 11 cross-ports, 41 piers, 3 pontoon piers, and 16 plengsengan piers.

“So, this is indeed the amount we have estimated by predicting the amount of increase that might occur," he said.

The ministry’s Transportation Policy Agency (Baketrans) earlier estimated that the peak of homecoming flow during the Christmas holiday period would occur on December 23–24, 2022. Meanwhile, the peak of Christmas return flow is predicted for December 25–26.

The peak of homecoming flow during the New Year holidays is expected to occur on December 30–31 and the peak of the return flow is forecast for January 1–2.

The Ministry of Transportation has also set up the Nataru Integrated Command Post for the holiday period, which will operate from December 19 to January 4 (17 days).

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Translator: Ade J, Azis Kurmala
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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