JAKARTA - A number of travelers at the port of Sri Bintan Pura (SBP) Tanjungpinang, Riau Islands (Kepri) are willing to queue for hours to get tickets for the Eid Al-Fitr homecoming ship to their hometown.
A passenger to Lingga Regency, Bella admitted that she had to queue for about two hours before getting a ticket the day before the scheduled departure of the MV Oceana 8 ship.
"Departing today, but buy tickets last night. It was lined up for about two hours, because the ticket sales lockers have been full since the morning," Bella said at the port of SBP Tanjungpinang, Wednesday, April 19.
However, the woman who migrated and earns sustenance in Tanjungpinang City did not mind queuing for hours as long as she got a homecoming ticket and returned to her hometown to meet her beloved family.
"For the sake of going home, anything is being worked on. Especially once a year for Eid homecoming," Bella said as quoted by Antara.
Another passenger to Karimun Regency, Rohana, was forced to queue at the ticket sales counter at the SBP Tanjungpinang port since 06.00 WIB to buy a homecoming ticket with the Istiqomah Jaya ship.
For him, Eid al-Fitr homecoming is a momentum to treat homesickness with his parents, relatives and close friends in his hometown, so it's a shame if you miss it even though you have to jostle to buy a ticket at the port.
"Earlier in line for about 2.5 hours, I just got a ticket for the departure schedule tomorrow, Thursday, April 20, 2023," said Rohana, a student at a university in Tanjungpinang.
Meanwhile, the Head of the Tanjungpinang KSOP Traffic Section, Imran, stated that the number of passengers on this year's D-3 Lebaran has exploded, but the exact figure can only be calculated after the last ship departure schedule at around 18.00 WIB. However, he said, the number of fleets and trips for ship departures per day, Wednesday, is still relatively normal. He predicts this year's Eid al-Fitr for the number of travelers departing from the Tanjungpinang SBP port is around 133 thousand people.
He conveyed that a number of ship operators had proposed additional fleets and departure trips for the D-2 Lebaran (Thursday, 20/4), such as the Lingga Regency route, Karimun Regency and Batam City.
"The addition has been approved to anticipate a surge in travelers on D-2 Lebaran," he said.
Imran ensured that all ships carrying travelers at the Tanjungpinang SBP port were in accordance with the load capacity to ensure security and safety in shipping.
"If the ship is full, go immediately. If someone has not been transported, there must be an option, for example deploying an additional fleet," said Imran.
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