Holiday transportation prepares

Holiday transportation prepares

JAKARTA (JP): To meet the anticipated increase in passenger- activity during the Christmas and year-end holidays, the government will provide additional transportation services from Dec. 18 to Jan. 8, 1996.

Minister of Transportation Haryanto Dhanutirto said in a hearing with the House Commission for Transportation yesterday that the number of passengers will likely increase by between 7 percent and 10 percent during the holiday season.

He said additional services will also be prepared for the Idul Fitri holiday in February next year.

"Additional air transportation services for Idul Fitri will be provided during the Feb. 14-Feb. 29 period, while additional sea transportation services will be made from Feb. 7 to March 9."

Some additional 25,000 buses will be prepared during the Idul Fitri holiday, when the number of passengers is expected to increase by 15 percent to 13 million, he said.

"We will also try to accommodate about 2.2 million people using trains for the next Idul Fitri holiday," he said. "Some 220 locomotives will be provided as well as 880 railway cars with a total capacity of 150,000 passengers per day."

Haryanto said that over three million people and 300,000 vehicles will likely use ferry services, for which the government will provide some 70 ferries for crossing services between Merak in West Java and Bakauheni in Lampung, between Ketapang in East Java and Gilimanuk in Bali and between Padang Bai in Bali and Lembar in Lombok.

He said that for sea transportation the government will prepare 16 vessels to serve 72 ports in 24 provinces.

Twenty container ships will be used to transport up to 2,100 passengers and 34 other goods vessels for 4,350 passengers, he added.

"The number of air transportation passengers is also estimated to increase by 15 percent to about 950,000 during the holiday. The country's airlines Bouraq, Garuda, Mandala, Merpati and Sempati will increase their services in 17 airports," Haryanto said.

The state-owned shipping operator PT Pelni will also prepare vessels to transport up to 2,400 cattle, while private shippers will prepare vessels with a total capacity of 17,700 tons of commodities, he said.

When asked about possible fare hikes, Haryanto said yesterday that the government had decided not to raise public transportation fares this year.

The organization of land transportation owners, Organda, had officially proposed that the government raise public transportation fares.

"The government will discuss the fares in the House of Representatives next month," he said. (icn)