President Jokowi Orders More Rest Areas On Toll Roads

Illustration. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) ordered his ministers to increase the number of rest areas and services (rest areas), to facilitate homecoming trips for people who take toll roads.

"Mr. President (Jokowi) has ordered us to make improvements, namely the first to increase the number of rest areas and increase facilities in each existing rest area," said Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture Muhadjir Effendy after the evaluation meeting for the 2024 Eid homecoming at the Presidential Palace, Jakarta, quoted from Antara, Monday, May 6.

Departing from these instructions, he said, the government will soon build a rest area at kilometer 97 of the Tangerang-Merak Toll Road, which is expected to become a buffer zone to prevent the accumulation of vehicles from Jakarta to Merak Port.

Furthermore, President Jokowi also approved the revitalization of the Anchor Port in Situbondo, East Java.

The port revitalization is not only aimed at dealing with passengers of the Lebaran homecoming, but also facilitates people who will cross from Java to West Nusa Tenggara, East Nusa Tenggara, and several small islands around Madura.

"Because if they pass through Ketapang or Gilimanuk, later if they want to go to NTB or Sumbawa, they will have to cross again and this will take a lot of time as well as high costs. With the revitalization of the Anchor Port in Situbondo, it will ease the burden on Ketapang and Gilimanuk ports," said Muhadjir.

Regarding the addition of rest areas, the Minister of Transportation Budi Karya Sumadi will coordinate with the Minister of PUPR Basuki Hadimuljono to take care of the acquisition of a number of land that will function as a rest area.

He estimates that the government will free up about 10 or 15 land covering an area of 5 hectares each, for one day it can be built into a rest area, both in the Cipali area and towards Merak.

"The function of rest area is to rest, but it also has a function as a place to delay the volume of vehicles heading somewhere," said Budi.

In order to anticipate overcrowding on toll roads, the government will continue to finalize the toll gate management by gradually deleting the touch system (tapping) for toll transactions with a contactless system or on board unit (OBU).

"We can no longer use a tapping system (electronic toll card) because km 70 and km 414 is very long (density). With the OBU system, vehicles can go directly and immediately record how much they pay. This makes smoothness at km 70 and km 414 happen well," said the Minister of Transportation.

Previously, the Minister of Transportation said that the level of public satisfaction with the implementation of the 1445 H Eid Al-Fitr homecoming in April reached 89 percent, while the level of satisfaction with the implementation of free homecoming activities was 91 percent.

He explained that the satisfaction figure was obtained based on a survey conducted by the Ministry of Transportation in collaboration with the Central Statistics Agency, the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, one of the print media in Indonesia, and one of the telecommunications companies in the country.

In safety elements, the government recorded a decrease in accident cases that caused the death toll by 8 percent and the number of minor injuries decreased by -10 percent, although the number of seriously injured victims increased by 33 percent compared to last year's homecoming.

Based on the survey, it was recorded that 242 million Indonesians traveled more than two hours which could be indicated as a homecoming trip during the Eid al-Fitr 2024 holiday.