Pramono Free Container Buffer Zone until August 5, Prohibit Parking on Cakung-Cilincing Road 

JAKARTA - DKI Jakarta Governor Pramono Anung has made it free to use the buffer zone or temporary storage area of empty containers at the Tanah Merdeka Terminal until August 5, 2026. This policy was taken to reduce the queue of containers which has been causing congestion on the Cakung-Cilincing Highway.

In the policy, empty containers are no longer allowed to stop or park on the road. All vehicles are directed to enter the Tanah Merdeka Terminal which is prepared as a temporary shelter location.

"I decided that the empty containers that we asked to park were not on the street. There should be no more parking on the street. That is what caused the extraordinary traffic jam. Then we use the Tanah Merdeka Terminal as a buffer zone," said Pramono in North Jakarta, Thursday, July 23.

The DKI Provincial Government also provides a tariff exemption for the use of the buffer zone from July 22 to August 5, 2026. This step is expected to encourage container operators to use the facilities that have been prepared rather than parking vehicles along the road.

"Because these are empty containers, they don't want to pay the levy. Therefore, from July 22 to August 5, the DKI Jakarta Provincial Government provides a tariff exemption discount. So that they don't park along the road," said Pramono.

According to Pramono, the Tanah Merdeka Terminal has a capacity to accommodate more than 200 empty containers so that it is considered to be quite helpful in reducing vehicle density around the port area and logistics routes.

He assessed that the congestion in the Cakung-Cilincing area was not only triggered by the high activity of distributing goods, but also the imbalance of the flow of import and export containers. Currently, containers loaded with imported goods continue to arrive in Jakarta, while export activity has decreased so that empty containers are piling up.

"Now there are so many containers that contain imports then enter Jakarta. But empty containers for exports happen to have a very significant decline so that there are queues everywhere," explained Pramono.

Therefore, Pramono asked all logistics business actors to utilize the buffer zone that has been provided during the tariff exemption period.

Previously, the Head of the DKI Jakarta Transportation Service, Budi Awaluddin, explained that the congestion in the Cakung-Cilincing corridor was triggered by the accumulation of containers in the port area. The high volume of imports that is not balanced by export activities causes the capacity of the container depot to be increasingly burdened so that the truck queue extends to the road.

"We hope that Pelindo's warehouse capacity can be increased from 65 percent to 75 to 80 percent so that there will be no more accumulation of containers in warehouses," said Budi.