80 Million People Predicted To Be Homecoming At Lebaran, Menhub Do This!

Minister of Transportation Budi Karya Sumadi (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Transportation (Kemenhub) has taken a number of steps to prepare for the 2023 Lebaran Transport (Angleb) since the beginning of this year. One of them is carrying out safety inspections (ramp checks).

Minister of Transportation Budi Karya Sumadi said this preparation was made so that the moment of homecoming during Eid al-Fitr which will take place starting in April can run safely, safely, comfortably, and under control.

A number of steps were taken from the start, including preparing a survey of potential community mobility movements during Angleb 2023 and carrying out safety inspections (ramp checks) on transportation facilities, both land, sea, air and train.

In the land sector, the Ministry of Transportation together with the Ministry of PUPR and the Korlantas Polri have checked the conditions of the southern coast and the north coast of Java.

Budi said that the management of the homecoming and backflows this year is very challenging, namely how to control the surge in the movement of people bigger than last year, which is predicted to reach 80 million people.

"This spike is predicted to occur because this year COVID-19 cases have decreased, there are no PPKM, and the economic situation has improved," said Budi, in Jakarta, Friday, February 17.

Budi said, the implementation of the Angleb and New Year's Transportation and Transportation (Nataru) in 2022 became an important asset or provision to improve the performance of this year's Eid Transport service.

"With the empirical experience of the previous year, we have identified a number of crucial points that have the potential for problems to occur if not handled properly," he said.

There are a number of important things that have been identified. First, the Jakarta toll road towards Central Java, where the Cipali toll road is a crucial point in the flow of homecoming and return. For that, said Budi, intensive coordination was carried out with the Korlantas Polri.

"We make regulations, but the implementation of traffic engineering, as well as supervision and prosecution is carried out by the Korlantas Polri, both in the form of contraflow, one way, and other engineering," he said.

In addition, continued Budi, the addition of rest areas on toll roads from Jakarta to the east also needs to be done, because the number is considered insufficient.

Second, at Merak Ferry Port, which was held by Angleb last year, there was a density.

"Now we have prepared additional ferry ports to divert congestion in Merak and Bakauheni. In Merak there is Ciwandan Port and in Sumatra we have prepared Panjang Port. We hope the density in Merak-Bakauheni can be divided," said the Minister of Transportation.

Third, related to air connectivity, which is predicted to have congestion at a number of airports, namely Bali, Makassar, Surabaya, and Medan.

"We have coordinated with airlines to use large aircraft (wide bodies) which can carry once 400 people and increase aircraft operating hours from usually 12 hours to 18 hours so that aircraft rotation can be maximized," he said.

"We are also coordinating with airport operators to increase airport operating hours," he continued.

Prepare Armda and Free Homecoming Program

Budi said, there are a number of other things that the Ministry of Transportation has prepared with relevant stakeholders to launch the Angleb implementation this year, namely preparing a public transportation fleet to anticipate a surge in passengers.

"And facilitate free homecoming programs to reduce the number of travelers using private vehicles, especially motorbikes," he said.

Based on the evaluation of the Angleb implementation in previous years, said Budi, a factor that is also important to make Angleb's implementation successful is socialization and support from the mass media to convey the latest information regarding policies.

"Also educating the public to plan their journey well," he said.

Last year, continued Budi, the level of public satisfaction with the implementation of the Lebaran homecoming based on the survey results from one of the survey institutions, namely Saiful Mujani Research and Consulting (SMRC) reached 76.4 percent.