Trucks transporting commodities needed by consumers in the two main islands of the country were forced to stay in queues for days or even weeks before they could be ferried to their destinations.
The main cause of the traffic jams is the decrease in the number of ferries operating to serve heavy flows of cargoes and passengers that would cross the 36-km Sunda Strait.
Of the 33 ferries usually plying the route, 11 are now put at dock-yard for maintenance or repair.
"There were usually 33 ferry ships operating but now only 22 ships because 11 of them are under repair. This has caused traffic jams at Merak port," Transportation Minister Freddy Numberi said on Sunday.
Currently however a total of 17 ferries at Merak port in Cilegon city, Banten, are not in operation because they are undergoing maintenance processes or have been sent to dock-yards for repairs. "There are 17 ferries usually serving the Merak-Bakauheni ports which are not in operation. Today, there are only 22 ferries are serving passengers at the two ports," Hery Widarto, a supervisor of TP ASDP for Merak.
The government is now considering building a bridge that would connect the Java island with Sumatra in its efforts to solve the transportation problems between Java and Sumatra in the long run, but for solution to the problem in the short term, the government is still trying to find the best way.
Among the solutions that are being thought by the government included building additional piers, separating piers between those for faster ships and those for slower ones. The urgent step to be taken is to evaluate docking schedules for ships going for repair of maintenance.
For this, Minister Freddy Numberi asked the Inland Waterway Service (PT ASDP) to evaluate its ship-docking arrangements at Merak port. "It should evaluate its docking arrangement and fix accurate schedules. The other efforts that could be made include separating special piers for faster ships," the minister said.
He said that his office continued to do its best to overcome the traffic jams that had hampered the flow of trucks at the ferry port of late. Therefore, Numberi said, he has asked PT ASDP and its private partners to evaluate the schedules of ships which would be sent to the dock-yard. The schedules should be arranged properly so that it would not cause overlapping and take too long at the dock-yard.
Besides, the other effort that could be made is separating or grouping faster ferries and direct them to certain piers, not to piers where slower ships would also berth at. "Faster ships could be put in a group to be directed to special piers, for example to pier 5 or pier 4," Numberi said
"We have complaints that low-speed ferries that transport queuing trucks hamper those of the fast speed ones. We have reported to the vice president that we have regrouped ships based on their speed classification. So that later on, the low-speed ones will be facilitated by a special pier," the minister added.
He said the government would therefore increase the number of piers at ports so that each of the ferry ports would have six piers. The construction of the piers is a follow up effort to overcome the traffic jams at the two ports which connect Java with Sumatra.
The minister said the construction of piers in Merak would cost Rp120 billion while those in Bakauheni would take some Rp450-Rp550 billion.
In the meantime, Banten Governor Ratu Atut Chosiyah, whose administrative areas included Marak, has asked PT ASDP to help overcome the traffic jams at Merak port.
"The queues of trucks willing to be ferried from Merak port in Banten (Java) to Bakauheni port in Lampung (Sumatra) of late are caused by the small number of ships operating," she said.
The governor said that besides the small number of ferries, the traffic jam at Merak port had also been caused by bad weather. "Bad weather factor has caused long queues of trucks," she said.
The governor said that the best solution to the problem was the construction of the Sunda Strait bridge (JSS) project. "We hope that the JSS project would be started soon. The presidential regulation on that matter is expected to be issued this month," she said.
The JSS whose construction is expected to start in 2014 and would constitute the world`s second longest bridge (36 km) after the Shanghai bridge in China, will cost some Rp150 trillion.
But the JSS project is a solution for the problem in the long run, so that the ports of Merak and Bakauheni must be revitalized soon. Ratu Atut said that revitalization of the ports of Merak and Bakauheni in Lampung should also be carried out.
Former mayor of Cilegon, Tb Aat Syafaat, regretted the performance of the transportation ministry which until now was still unable to overcome traffic flow problems at Merak port. "I once submitted a proposal to the ministry of transportation but it seemed that my concept has got no response," he said.
When he was still Cilegon city mayor, he proposed the construction of additional piers and increase the number of ships. "Ferries existing now are old ships. They need to be replaced," he said.
Most of the 33 ships under ASDP firm at Merak port are already old, or over 25 years, some others even almost reaching 40 years old. It included the Jatra I and Jatra II ferries which were produced in 1980.
The others are Jatra III (produced in 1985), BSP I,1973, BSP II,1971, BSP III,1973, Bahuga Pratama, 1992, Bahuga Jaya,1987, Menggala, 1973, Mufidah,1979, Duta Banten, 1973, Jagantara, 1979, Nusa Dharma, 1986, Nusa Bahagia,1979, Victorius, 1990, Laut Teduh I, 1990, Musthika Kencana,1975, HM Baruna,1992, Tribuana, 1997 and Rajabasa I, 1990.
Besides that other old ferries are SMS Kartanegara,1984, Windu Karsa Dwita,1997, Windu Karsa Pratama,1993, Titian Nusantara,1995, Panorama Nusantara,1987, Royal Nusantara,1985, Prima Nusantara,1975, Mitra Nusantara,1997, Titian Murni,1985, Nusa Agung,1992, Nusa Jaya,1987, Nusa Mulia, 1992 and Nusa Setia, 1994. (*)
Reporter: By Andi Abdussalam
Editor: Kunto Wibisono
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
