Protest hits Ketapang harbor

Protest hits Ketapang harbor

DENPASAR, Bali: For several hours on Thursday afternoon the traffic flow between the island of Java and Bali was brought to a virtual halt after several private companies that own 13 out of the 18 ferries in Ketapang harbor, East Java, staged a protest to demand higher fares by halting ferry services.

Ketapang harbor is the main, and the only, ferry port that connects Java with Bali. An average of 2,000 passengers and 1,000 vehicles use the ferry services from Ketapang, and its Bali counterpart, Gilimanuk harbor, everyday.

The protest started at around 12:30 p.m. local time. The strike soon resulted in long lines of passengers and vehicles both in Ketapang and Gilimanuk.

"Gilimanuk harbor's parking facility was fully-packed with all kinds of vehicles; family cars, interprovincial buses and trucks, all waiting to get across," a local resident said.

With only five vessels in operation, three of which belong to the state-owned River, Lake and Ferry Transport Company (ASDP), and the other two belonging to a Banyuwangi-based private company that did not participate in the strike, the harbor administration tried fruitlessly to ease the long queues of passengers and vehicles.

A local police intelligence officer in Gilimanuk, some 130 kilometers west of here, disclosed that the private ferry owners were angered by the port administration's slow response to their request for higher fares, which they had made last month. --JP