Peak of Lebaran Mudik Traffic Forecast for 16 and 18 March 2026

The Ministry of Transport (MoT) Minister Dudy Purwagandhi predicts that the peak of Lebaran mudik traffic in 2026 will take place on 16 and 18 March 2026. ‘Indeed from our simulations, there are two dates when congestion is expected during mudik, forecast on 16 March, Monday, and 18 March (Wednesday),’ the Minister said in Jakarta on Friday evening, 6 March, quoted by Antara. To reduce congestion during mudik, the government has proposed a work-from-anywhere (WFA) policy, and it has been approved by the president. ‘For the mudik period, the WFA policy is planned to apply on 16 and 17 March so that people have flexibility in travel time before the peak traffic congestion occurs,’ Dudy said. Meanwhile, for the Lebaran return flow, the government proposed implementing WFA on 25, 26 and 27 March after the Idul Fitri holiday period ends. He noted that private vehicles such as cars, motorcycles and buses remain the dominant modes of transport used by the public during the mudik period. On 18 March, the number of people on the move is forecast to be even higher, around 22 million people, making it one of the peaks of Lebaran mudik. With the WFA policy in place, the government hopes the number of movements on 16 March can fall to around 18 to 18.9 million people. Purwagandhi said movement is expected to have begun rising since Friday 13 March, initially projected at around 4.4 million journeys. After the WFA policy is implemented, the number of movements on 13 March is projected to rise to around eight to almost nine million journeys, or almost double the initial projection. The data come from surveys conducted by the government before Lebaran transport operations, to map potential movement of people and to prepare the national transport infrastructure and facilities. The surveys were conducted by the Ministry of Transport in cooperation with Lembaga Afiliasi Penelitian dan Industri ITB (LAPI ITB), Badan Pusat Statistik (BPS), and the Ministry of Communications and Digital (Komdigi).