ASDP maximises services to ease heavy congestion at Gilimanuk Port
Jakarta — PT ASDP Indonesia Ferry (Persero) is maximising services to ease heavy congestion of vehicles heading to Gilimanuk Port, Bali, ensuring smooth traffic flow during the Islamic New Year 1447 Hijriah period.
“Vehicle traffic to Gilimanuk Port is moving, despite congestion observed during the Islamic New Year 2026 period,” said ASDP Vice President Director Yossianis Marciano in a statement in Jakarta on Tuesday.
He noted that congestion has been driven by increased public mobility, with people seeking to cross earlier before temporary closures of the Gilimanuk-Ketapang and Padangbai-Lembar routes in connection with Nyepi Day (Balinese New Year) celebrations on 18-20 March 2026.
In addition to high vehicle volumes at the port, queue conditions have also been affected by traffic dynamics along routes to the Gilimanuk area, including public activity at several service points such as fuel filling stations and other travel support facilities.
He stated that through various service acceleration measures, vehicle queues that previously reached approximately 36 kilometres have begun to ease gradually, with current congestion monitored at approximately 20 kilometres of queuing towards Gilimanuk Port.
He emphasised that the company is deploying all operational capacity to ease congestion and maintain smooth ferry service operations.
ASDP is implementing various maximum efforts by optimising vessels, wharves, and operational arrangements to keep vehicle traffic moving.
“We understand that many service users are racing against time before port closure during Nyepi, so we are deploying all our resources to accelerate ferry services,” said Yossianis.
He noted that on 16 March 2026 from 00:00 to 23:59 WIB (H-5), a total of 76,495 passengers crossed from Bali to Java through Gilimanuk Port.
This figure increased by 2.9 per cent compared to the same period last year, which recorded 74,321 people.
For vehicles, a total of 14,398 motorcycles, 6,350 four-wheeled vehicles, 1,339 trucks, and 938 buses crossed during that period. Overall, the total number of vehicles crossing on H-5 reached 23,025 units.
Meanwhile, cumulatively from H-10 to H-5, the number of passengers crossing from Bali to Java reached 309,135 people, an increase of 0.7 per cent compared to the same period last year, which recorded 306,839 people.
The total number of vehicles crossing during the same period was recorded at 97,787 units, or up 2.8 per cent compared to the previous year’s realisation of 95,080 units.
Yossianis emphasised that ASDP will continue to carry out operational optimisation together with all stakeholders to ensure that vehicle traffic, which is currently congested, can be progressively eased.
“With the support of all stakeholders, ASDP continues to work to keep ferry services safe, smooth, and conducive so that public mobility and logistics distribution continue to run smoothly,” said Yossianis.
Meanwhile, ASDP Ketapang Branch General Manager Arif Eko stated that his team, together with field partners, is implementing various traffic management measures to help facilitate vehicle traffic to the port.
“Small vehicles are also directed to the cargo buffer zone area, which is currently monitored as being filled, to reduce congestion on the main route to the port,” said Arif.
From an operational standpoint, the Ketapang-Gilimanuk route is currently being operated with a very dense operational pattern, deploying 34 vessels to increase service capacity. ASDP is also implementing an arrive-unload-depart (AUD) scheme at several wharves, namely MB2, MB4, LCM, and Bulusan.
“A total of 24 vessels are deployed to serve the AUD scheme, where vessels arriving at Ketapang Port immediately carry out cargo unloading and depart again without loading new vehicles, so vessel turnaround becomes faster,” Arif added.
He further noted that the spike in public mobility is evident from data on passenger and vehicle movements.