Mulitudes of cars and motorcycles carrying home-bound Idul Fitri travelers were on Saturday reported to be packing Java`s northern and southern highways, as well as the Merak and Bakauheni ferry ports in Banten and Lampung respectively.
The drastically increased number of vehicles on the roads caused traffic jams at a number of locations, giving the traffic police a busy time maintaining order, and the vehicle drivers an opportunity to exercise patience.
From 11 AM on Friday morning, traffic on the Cikampek toll road and the northern, central and southern highways of Java became increasingly heavy but the trend eased on Saturday morning.
To reduce traffic congestion at Jomin, Cikampek, and Kalihurip-Dawuan intersections, the traffic police had to apply an open-and-close system.
Chief of the Public Communication Center at the Transportation Ministry, Bambang S Ervan, said the traffic jams on the Jakarta-Cikampek toll road continued to happen from Friday until Saturday morning.
Based on the monitoring with CCTV cameras, the traffic along Cikampek toll road to Java`s northern highway was quite heavy on Saturday morning.
"We are going to divert some of the vehicles to the alternative Sadang-Cikamurang road in order to reduce the congestions," Bambang said.
He said Kanci-Pajagan toll road linking West Java and Central Java was on Saturday morning still crowded.
According to Bambang, traffic from Jakarta to Merak ferry port in Banten was also getting heavier, and on Saturday morning the traffic snarl-up was no less than 10 kilometers long.
(Uu.O001/HAJM)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
