Buses, taxis adequate for city during holiday

JAKARTA (JP): A city official said yesterday there will be enough public buses for Jakarta residents, despite the many buses being used for Idul Fitri intercity transportation.

The head of City Land Transportation Agency, J.P. Sepang, said yesterday public buses used to transport people to their hometowns during the annual Lebaran (Idul Fitri) exodus will not affect city transport.

"Only 25 percent of the about 14,000 city public buses are being used to backup the Idul Fitri transportation fleet which consists of more than 7,000 buses," Sepang said, adding that the exodus was expected to take place between Feb. 2 and Feb. 17.

Idul Fitri falls on Feb. 9 and Feb. 10.

Both PPD and Metro Mini have each provided 500 buses for city transport, while Mayasari Bhakti and Steady Safe allocated 350 and 300 buses respectively. Bianglala and Kopaja bus operators provided 100 buses each.

Other companies such as Giri Indah, Andalan, Himpurna, AJA Putra, Koantas Bima, and IKPJ, have provided a total of 245 buses.

Taxis

The number of taxis operating in the capital city during Idul Fitri will also be sufficient. Several taxi operators said that although many taxi drivers would celebrate Idul Fitri in their hometowns, many believed the holiday was a good time to make more money.

"Almost of our fleet of 417 cabs will serve passengers during the holiday as most of our drivers usually work on the holiday to earn more money and return to their hometowns after the season is over," said Lilik Nugroho, Royal City taxi company's deputy head of operations.

Blue Bird's vice operations director, Ateng Aryono, said half of the company's fleet of 1,600 cars would also be on the road on the first day of Lebaran.

He said during Idul Fitri people might find fewer taxis around.

Express taxi company will only operate 40 percent of its 800 cars, according to Nuh, one of the company's operations staff.

"All drivers are still required to pay their daily rental fees whether or not they work over the Lebaran holiday. That's probably the reason why most of them work after spending some time with their families," Nuh said.

A Kosti Jaya driver, Sutoto, said he would work over the holiday because there would be more passengers needing taxis then.

To ensure against drivers tampering with meters, taxi operators have said they will terminate the contract of any taxi driver caught meddling with the meter. (ste/04)