Exodus expected to reach peak today
JAKARTA (JP): The number of people joining the country's annual Idul Fitri and Christmas holiday exodus kept increasing on Saturday, and is expected to reach its peak on Sunday.
On the Jakarta-Cikampek turnpike, West Java, the number of vehicles using the road was expected to swell dramatically on Sunday.
The head of Cikampek toll road operator PT Jasa Marga, A.D. Panjaitan, said that the company should earn Rp 200 million from the 42,000 cars predicted to head for West, Central and East Java using the highway on Sunday.
"The number of people using the toll road, heading for this year's Idul Fitri, Christmas and New Year Eve holidays in their hometowns, is about 10 percent more than last year," he said, without elaborating.
Traffic on the northern coastal lane (from Jakarta to West, Central and East Java areas) has been heavily congested with the number of vehicles increasing intermittently. On Friday a 35- kilometer line of vehicles, stretching from Cikopo to Pamanukan in West Java, had to crawl along slowly.
At the North Jakarta port of Tanjung Priok, a total of 2,687 passengers boarded three liners, cruising for Medan, Riau and Makassar on Saturday.
Head of the port's passenger terminal, A. Soetirto, said that the seaport encountered 5,108 passengers on the previous day, mostly from areas in Sumatra, including Batam, Medan, Bintan and Karimun Islands.
"Most of the passengers are Indonesian workers working overseas who want to spend their holidays in their hometowns in Java," Soetirto said.
More than 10,000 passengers from Sumatra have disembarked at the port since the beginning of this month.
The number of people traveling by ferry from Jakarta to Sumatra also multiplied on Saturday. The ferries sailing from Merak port in Banten to Bakauheni in Lampung carried passengers in excess of their capacity.
Fierce competition among thousands of people, trying to board the ferries as early as they could, encouraged many of them to embark without having purchased tickets.
"We lost some Rp 50 million on Friday night due to a large number of passengers without tickets," an official at the Merak port said, adding that the ferry porters had failed to control that many passengers one by one.
In Semarang, two Navy war ships, Teluk Ende and Teluk Banten, and three commercial ships, Sitiung Caraka Jaya, Irinawa, and Inaran, were deployed to anticipate an increase in sea passengers at the Tanjung Emas port.
The war ships, which can accommodate an average of 200 passengers each, would sail for Surabaya and Kumai, director of the Semarang branch office of PT Pelni Sri Suyatna said.
"The price of the war ship tickets are much lower than the Pelni ship," said Suyatna, citing that a passenger must pay only Rp 150,000 to go to Kumai, Central Kalimantan, from Semarang.
In a related development, some 3,000 prospective passengers of the Kaligung train bound for Tegal had crowded the Poncol railway station in Semarang since Saturday noon, despite the fact that the train was not available until 4 p.m.
An influx of people from Jakarta has also caused mayhem at the Terboyo bus terminal.
Thousands flocked to the Panaikang and Tamalate bus terminals in Makassar on Saturday to take busses to their hometowns, but many of them could not get tickets.
"All the tickets were sold out about two weeks ago," a Bina Bakti bus conductor said at the Tamalate terminal.
To help people who want to go to Surabaya and Jakarta, the directorate general of sea transportation, in cooperation with the Navy, has made a war ship Teluk Mandar available.
However, people seem to be reluctant to accept the offer, despite the ticket price being half that of the commercial vessels operated by the state-owned PT Pelni.
The Makassar-Jakarta tickets cost Rp 89,000 and Makassar- Surabaya Rp 50,000, while children are charged only 10 percent of those fares.
"We prefer the Pelni ship to the war ship. We are just worried that the war ship could not give service similar to the Pelni ship," Sujatmo, who wanted to go to Surabaya with his family, said at the Soekarno-Hatta seaport in Makassar.
Accident
In the Jambi province's capital of Jambi, four people were killed and six others injured after a passenger bus, plying the Jakarta-Medan route, plunged into a ravine on Friday when another car hit it from behind, a police officer said on Saturday.
Bungo Police Precinct chief Supt. Dadang Muharam said the bus belonging to PO Panca Orienta was stopping on the Sumatra Highway in Bukit Apit village, Bungo regency, some 300 kilometers away from Jambi when a speeding car hit the bus from behind.
He did not have any idea what kind of car hit the bus, and said there were no witnesses that could be questioned. "The bus made a stop for driver substitution, while most of the passengers were asleep."
Antara reported the four victims, all bus passengers, were identified as Lusiana Aritonga (65), Benna Hutagalung (35), Susanto (9) and bus driver Tanui (40). They were all sent to the Bungo hospital.
In the nearby town of Kendal a Garuda Mas bus full of people from Jakarta hit a motorcycle carrying three people. Sgt. Sarjono of the Kaliwungu Police sub-precinct said that the deceased were identified as Rois (21), Sulimin (31) and Manisah (33).
According to Sarjono the bus driver is still at large.
Another accident which claimed seven lives occurred in Kalianda, South Lampung, some 35 kilometers from Bakauheni, early on Saturday morning when two busses full of passengers collided.
In the South Sulawesi capital of Makassar, all police officers have been prohibited from taking their leave for fear of possible disturbances during the holidays.
Makassar Police chief Sr. Supt. Muhammad Amin said that all 1,328 officers must remain on call during the holidays. "What would we do if something happens while many officers are off duty. Public service is our priority."
"We have been launching special operations code-named Operasi Lilin and Operasi Ketupat during the Ramadhan fasting month. We hope that everything is under control." (07/27/har/jaw/sur)