Over 7,000 buses available for New Year holidays

JAKARTA (JP): More than 7,000 buses will be available for Christmas and New Year's holidaymakers, the head of the Land Transportation Control Agency, J.P. Sepang, said Saturday.

Sepang said a total of 7,061 buses were expected to meet the people's demand for transportation during the holidays.

"However, additional buses are ready in case of emergency," he said.

The buses would be pooled at the existing bus terminals, including Pulo Gadung and Kampung Rambutan in East Jakarta, Lebak Bulus in South Jakarta and Kalideres in West Jakarta.

"The city will not increase the number of terminals, because the existing terminals will be adequate to hold the explosion of holidaymakers," Sepang said.

Most of the buses are intercity buses. The others are city public buses.

The operation of the buses is based on letter No. 207/2/20/DPRD/93 from the minister of transportation on transportation for Idul Fitri, Christmas and New Year's holidays.

The buses, Sepang said, should follow the regulation in providing good service to the travelers, adding the city would punish bus companies which violated the regulation and neglected the travelers.

"We will impound the buses if the drivers are found violating the rules, like neglecting passengers," Sepang said.

The agency predicted that the peak of the Christmas exodus will be on Dec. 19, while the peak for their return will occur on Dec. 26. For the New Year's holiday, the revelers are predicted to crowd bus terminals on Dec. 28 and Jan. 2.

Last Christmas, as many as 64,889 people left the city on 2,370 buses for their hometowns in West, Central and East Java from Dec. 18 to Dec. 26.

In 1994, 79,750 people left on 2,467 buses, while in 1993, a total of 92,761 people left the city on 2,253 buses.

On Saturday, head of the city's public order entertainment department Toha Reno revealed that his office would deploy 1,000 officials to secure the celebration of Christmas and New Year's, from Dec. 16 to Jan. 5.

"The office will give extra attention to certain areas which are the center of people's activities," Toha said.

Those areas include shopping centers, entertainment and recreational parks, bus and train stations, highways and worship places, he said.

His office would also conduct operations to prevent crimes during those holidays, he said.

In residential areas, highways, religious places and parks, the crackdown will target vendors, scavengers, beggars, those possessing firecrackers and liquor and the condition of sanitary facilities and parking areas.

In hotels, theaters, nightclubs, restaurants and pubs, the raids would target the permits for the celebration activities, permits or recommendations for distributing door prizes and the operation hours. "We will also make sure that the entertainment centers hiring foreign artists have proper permits," Toha said.

Last year, 49 entertainment centers, mostly discotheques, acquired permits to celebrate Christmas, and 339 permits were issued, mostly for theaters for New Year's celebrations.

Nine nightspots were found violating the regulations during Christmas and New Year's celebrations last year, he said.

The city collected more than Rp 1 billion (US$425,531) in fees from last year's Christmas and New Year's celebrations. (ste)