Minister Of Transportation: Vehicle Volume On The Jakarta-Semarang Toll Road Increases 20 Percent Compared To Last Year

Minister of Transportation (Menhub) Budi Karya Sumadi, while reviewing the flow of homecoming. (photo: dock. intermediate)

JAKARTA - Minister of Transportation (Menhub) Budi Karya Sumadi said that until Wednesday, April 19 evening, vehicles passing on the Jakarta-Semarang toll road rose 20 percent compared to the D-3 Lebaran 2022 homecoming flow. "Alhamdulillah, even though there was a vehicle spike, the average speed of vehicles from the Jakarta to Semarang to Semarang to also increased from 2022, from 69 km/hour to 71 km/hour," said the Minister of Transportation while reviewing the Cikampek Utama Toll Gate, Wednesday, April 19 evening as quoted from a written statement received in Jakarta, Thursday, April 20. "This proves that we are progressing compared to last year. Tomorrow and the day after tomorrow (20 and 21 April 2023) is still challenging, we must be more compact to deal with it," continued the Minister of Transportation, quoted by Antara. For these results, the Minister of Transportation expressed his appreciation to the Ministry of PUPR, Korlantas, Jasa Marga, and other related parties who have made good preparations from the start to anticipate the surge in vehicle volume.

Several anticipatory efforts were made, including adding toll road infrastructure which was originally only six lanes (three lanes towards Jakarta and three lanes towards Cikampek) to eight lanes (four lanes in the direction of Jakarta and four lanes in the direction of Cikampek) to KM 70, adding a countering (counting) system from both human resources and supporting facilities so that the calculation becomes faster. Then, adding facilities and capacity to rest areas as carried out by Astra as the manager of the Cipali Toll Road which adds toilet facilities from 150 to 300 units and parking capacity from 300 vehicles to 1,000 vehicles. "This is a good lesson that we must continue to improve road infrastructure and improve the sophistication of the counting system. God willing, the implementation of homecoming and return flows next year will be even better," he said. To deal with the return flow later, the Minister of Transportation also appealed to the public not to return on Monday 24 April and Tuesday 25 April because it was predicted that it would be the peak of backflow movement. He encouraged the public to make previous return travel or after that was on Wednesday 26 April, Thursday 27 April, and Friday 28 April. "On Thursday (27/4) and Friday (28/4), Jasa Marga is kind of heart will provide a 20 percent toll-rate discount because it was proven on yesterday's homecoming flow, with discounts, vehicle movement grew by about 12 percent so that many people went home early," said the Minister of Transportation.