Taking a warship for the homecoming journey, receiving souvenirs of stories for the rural homeland

Jakarta (ANTARA) - In the final days of the holy month of Ramadan, we will once again witness the massive movement of people from urban centres to their hometowns to spend the Eid al-Fitr 1447 Hijriah moment with family and loved ones. According to national survey results, as announced by Minister of Transportation Dudy Purwagandhi, the movement of people during the 2026 Lebaran transport period is projected to reach 143.91 million people, or nearly half of Indonesia’s national population. In the full cabinet plenary session at the State Palace in Jakarta on Friday (13/3), President of the Republic of Indonesia Prabowo Subianto urged all parties to support the smooth flow of the homecoming and return journeys during this year’s Lebaran season. This message was also conveyed by the President to the Indonesian National Armed Forces (TNI), which he hopes will deploy its warships to support the smooth homecoming flow for Lebaran 2026. “The Navy and Army have ships, perhaps these can be mobilised, coordinated with the Minister of Transportation,” said Prabowo in his opening remarks at the cabinet meeting. In response to the direct instruction from Prabowo, the Indonesian Navy (TNI AL) is ready to deploy its warships to assist in mobilising homecomers to their rural hometowns. From Jakarta, TNI AL is deploying at least two of its combat ships, namely KRI Banda Aceh-593 and KRI Semarang-594, to transport the homecomers free of charge. Sailing to the hometowns Both ships set sail to their destinations this week, with more than 1,300 initial homecomers sailing on KRI Semarang-594 on Sunday (15/3) and another 1,447 homecomers sailing to eastern Java on KRI Banda Aceh-593 on Tuesday (17/3). Navy Chief of Staff Admiral TNI Muhammad Ali stated that KRI Semarang-594 is sailing to the Bangka Belitung Islands, stopping at Bangka Island and Belitung Island, while KRI Banda Aceh-593 is sailing to Semarang in Central Java and Surabaya in East Java.