Avoid Queues at Toll Gates: Prepare This Much e-Toll Balance for the Return Flow from Surabaya-Semarang to Jakarta

PT Jasa Marga has advised road users embarking on their return journey to Jabotabek to ensure they have sufficient electronic money (e-toll) balance for their travels. This is because, based on an evaluation from H-10 to H+1 of the Eid al-Fitr 1447H/2026 holiday period, or 11-22 March 2026, there were 21,000 vehicles with insufficient e-toll balance at the Kalikangkung Toll Gate on the Batang-Semarang Toll Road, leading to top-ups at the gate itself. Jasa Marga President Director Rivan A. Purwantono explained that this figure represents 4.9% of the total 442,000 vehicles that transacted at the Kalikangkung gate during the same period. “Insufficient e-toll balances, which result in high top-up activity at the toll gate, will cause significant delays and queues at the toll gate,” Rivan stated in a written release on Tuesday, 24 March 2026. Similar conditions could recur during the return flow, particularly at the Cikampek Utama Toll Gate. Therefore, Jasa Marga advises road users to anticipate the return journey by ensuring adequate e-toll balances before entering the toll road to avoid vehicle queues and maintain smooth traffic flow. “Prepare sufficient e-toll balance for road users on continuous journeys, especially from the Trans Java direction towards Jakarta,” he added. For the journey from Semarang to Jakarta, Group I vehicle users are advised to prepare a minimum e-toll balance of Rp500,000. Meanwhile, for users travelling from Surabaya to Jakarta, a minimum balance of Rp1,000,000 is recommended. If top-up processes occur at the toll gate for thousands of vehicles passing through the Cikampek Utama gate, it will disadvantage road users, as travel time will be wasted waiting for the top-up process. For this reason, Jasa Marga once again requests cooperation from road users to regularly check their e-toll balances for a smooth return journey. Rivan also reminded road users, particularly those travelling on the Trans Java Toll Road with a closed transaction system (distance-based fares), that the e-toll card used for tap-in must be the same as the one used for tap-out.