Roads Still Not Recovered from 2025 Floods; Return Journey to Gayo Lues Takes 24 Hours via North Sumatra
Flood survivors in Gayo Lues Regency, Aceh, remain in difficult circumstances. More than three months after the natural disaster struck between 24-27 November 2025, transportation routes to several remote inland Aceh locations remain severely disrupted.
According to Media Indonesia’s investigation on Wednesday, 11 March, among the unrepaired road sections is the Lokob Route in Serba Jadi District, East Aceh Regency to Blang Kejeren, Gayo Lues Regency. As a result, traffic flow connecting the Central Coast, East and South-Central Aceh regions remains completely severed.
Ironically, hundreds of students, migrant workers and Islamic boarding school pupils studying in East Aceh or Langsa City planning to return home for Eid celebrations 1447 Hijriah face complete disruption. Previously, they would return to Gayo Lues via public minibus along the Peureulak, East Aceh to Blang Kejeren route.
Now they must take a detour via Medan-Kutacane, South-East Aceh. The journey time has increased from the previous five hours to as long as 24 hours.
“Usually people travelling home from Langsa City and East Aceh Regency by minibus via the Lokob-Pining route pay between 180,000 to 250,000 rupiah. This time they must spend 800,000 to 1 million rupiah,” said Pasir Putih Village Head, Pining District, Gayo Lues, Kamaruddin, in an interview with Media Indonesia on Wednesday, 11 March.
Kamaruddin noted that given the difficult post-flood economic conditions, transport costs for the Eid holiday journey of that magnitude are extremely burdensome. This is particularly true for Gayo Lues students studying at various universities in Langsa, who only departed for campus a month ago following the odd semester break.
The situation is exacerbated as the economic activity of their parents in Gayo Lues remains unrecovered. Thousands of hectares of rice paddies, coffee plantations, candlenut, cocoa, banana crops and other agricultural land have been destroyed, covered by landslides or buried under mud.
“People had hoped to recover through the major durian harvest two months ago, but that too was hampered by damaged roads preventing transport to Blang Kejeren, the Gayo Lues Regency capital. Getting produce to East Aceh and Langsa is even more difficult given that road repair work remains incomplete,” Kamaruddin explained.
M Adli Abdullah, a cultural observer from Syiah Kuala University (USK) in Aceh, stated that hundreds of kilometres of road sections and dozens of bridges along the provincial Lokob route, East Aceh to Blang Kejeren, Gayo Lues, remain destroyed and impassable. This disruption not only affects the Eid holiday exodus but prevents thousands of tonnes of agricultural produce and plantation crop harvests from Gayo Lues being distributed to eastern coastal areas, northern Aceh and domestic North Sumatra markets.
“The Peureulak-Lokob, East Aceh to Pining-Blang Kejeren, Gayo Lues route is the lifeblood of the economy for inland communities in these two regions. If this route is not completed urgently, it will have serious consequences for food supplies and people’s economic resources,” he stated.
“This will also affect the sustainability of children’s education at various universities in Banda Aceh, East Aceh, Medan and Java,” said M Adli Abdullah, a Senior Lecturer at USK.
PT Pelni’s Jakarta Branch projects that peak Eid holiday passenger traffic at Tanjung Priok Port, North Jakarta will occur three days before Eid al-Fitr, specifically on Wednesday 18 March and Thursday 19 March.
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Ahead of the Eid holiday exodus, PT PLN West Java has deployed 4,993 personnel to maintain reliable electricity supply. Additionally, backup equipment readiness has been mobilised.