KAI Prepares Extra Officers To Maintain Field Crossing During The 2024 Nataru Holiday

EVP Corporate Secretary of KAI Raden Agus Dwinanto Budiadji. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - PT Kereta Api Indonesia (Persero) or KAI will prepare extra officers at field crossings during the 2023 Christmas and 2024 New Year (Nataru) holidays. The goal is to anticipate the risk of accidents.

KAI's EVP Corporate Secretary Raden Agus Dwinanto Budiadji said that if an accident occurs at a level crossing it will be very detrimental to many parties. Starting from people whose trips are hampered to operator losses in terms of costs.

Therefore, Agus assessed that additional officers needed to be done so that accidents could be anticipated. Especially if you remember the movement of people during the 2023 Christmas and 2024 New Year holidays, it increased by 143.65 percent compared to the previous year.

"Later, when Nataru prepares extra guards from KAI, we will pay for everything ourselves. To reduce or mitigate high risks because there are crossings that are passed at night," Agus said when met at Gambir Station, Jakarta, quoted on Sunday, November 26.

Furthermore, Agus said, this level crossing guard will be added to almost all operational areas (daop) of KAI. This means that there is not only one area.

"For example, in Jakarta, from here (Gambir) to Cikampek, there must be some that are guarded, there are 10-15 (crossings). Later from Cikampek to Bandung, Bandung to Tasik, Tasik to Banjar it will continue (guarded)," he explained.

Not only adding officers, said Agus, KAI also continues to socialize at every crossing which is considered quite dangerous. The public is also asked to be careful when crossing unobserved crossings.

"We have a socialization program at rail crossings every week in the regions. We can only appeal," he said.

Previously, Commission V of the DPR asked the central government together with the regional government (Pemda) to resolve the level crossing problem. This problem is the homework (PR) of the government that is still left and must be resolved.

Chairman of Commission V of the DPR as well as chair of the meeting, Lasarus admitted that this level crossing problem is quite complicated. The reason is, the authority is not only in the hands of the central government but also in local governments.

"For the island of Java, the problem of protracted, which until today cannot be resolved, the Minister is a level crossing," said the Chairman of Lasarus, in a working meeting with the Minister of Transportation, Minister of PUPR, Korlantas, BMKG, and Basarnas, at the DPR Building, Parliament Complex, Senayan, Jakarta, Tuesday, November 21.

"I also see that this level of crossing progress is a bit complicated for me to see. Because there is local government authority, there is the authority of the central government," he continued.

Therefore, said Lasarus, there is no common ground between the two for handling level crossings. However, Lasarus emphasized that the accident rate at a level crossing is very high, so this problem must be resolved.

If this level of crossing can be handled, we can reduce how many victims are there per day. In my opinion, this is quite heavy homework that we have to solve, the rest of this government, if I look at what is still significant, one of which is still the lack of handling level crossings," he said.