Minister Of Transportation Reviews Ketapang-Gilimanuk Port Readiness Ahead Of Year-End Holidays

Minister of Transportation Budi Karya Sumadi (ANTARA)

JAKARTA - Ensuring the readiness of transportation infrastructure facilities to face the Christmas and New Year holidays of the Minister of Transportation (Menhub) Budi Karya Sumadi together with Kakorlantas Polri, Brigadier General Aan Suhanan and President Director of PT ASDP Indonesia Ferry (Persero), Ira Puspadewi visited Ketapang port, Banyuwangi and Gilimanuk port, Bali ahead of the 2023 Christmas and 2024 New Year holidays.

The Minister of Transportation ensured the readiness of transportation facilities and infrastructure to support the smooth running of people during the Christmas 2023 and New Year 2024 holidays. "Since two months ago we have conveyed it to Korlantas and ASDP. If we had previously been out of coordination, now we have coordinated and there have been improvements," said the Minister of Transportation in a statement received in Jakarta, Saturday.

The Minister of Transportation said that repairs and service improvements had been carried out at the ports of Ketapang and Gilimanuk during the year-end period. For the Ketapang port, ASDP has increased the ship's capacity from 10,685 small vehicles in 2022 to 12,885 small vehicles in 2023. Meanwhile, port capacity was increased from 1,270 small vehicles in 2022 to 1,570 small vehicles this year.

Furthermore, for Gilimanuk port, an increase in pier IV, which was originally a capacity of 10 tons, has been used as a Movable Bridge (MB) dock with a capacity of 60 tons. The pier length has been added from 24 meters to 75 meters and trestle from 25 meters to 85 meters with facilities covering 3 Mooring Dolphin units and 5 Breathe Dolphin units. In addition, mobility arrangements for passenger and logistics vehicles are also carried out during the year-end holidays.

Ketapang Port will only serve passenger vehicles, while cargo trucks will be diverted to the Tanjung Wangi port managed by PT Pelindo and Janger Port in Situbondo. "The good news is also our evaluation with Mr. Korlantas and Mrs. President Director of ASDP, there are additional three ships that are relatively large so that passenger capacity to cross from Banyuwangi to Bali will increase well," he said.. online ticket sales can only be done at a maximum radius of 2.6 km before Ketapang port and 2 km before Gilimanuk port. Thus, passengers are no longer able to purchase tickets after entering that radius. "We are doing this to avoid unofficial agents and so that non-smoothness does not occur," he said. Brigadier General Suhanan added, Korlantas is ready to coordinate with the Ministry of Transportation and other stakeholders to regulate the traffic around the port. "With the addition of ships and the separation of ports of passenger vehicles and goods, hopefully, the volume of vehicles heading to Ketapang will decrease," he said. This activity was also attended by Secretary General Novie Riyanto, Director General of Sea Transportation, Antoni Arif Priadi.