Toll firm snagged Rp 13.9 billion during Idul Fitri holidays

JAKARTA (JP): The recent Idul Fitri was particularly joyous for PT Jasa Marga, the state-owned toll company, which recorded Rp 13.9 billion (US$6.6 million) gross revenue on the surge of travel in the greater Jakarta area around the holiday.

Judi Saragih, a spokesman for the company, said over the weekend almost 10 million cars rode Jakarta's toll roads in the two weeks book-ending the holiday, forcing the company to re- schedule their employees working hours.

"We had to re-schedule the working time of our employees because we have no part-timers," the spokesman said, adding that the company deployed 442 employees equipped with 56 operational cars, 14 ambulances and two reserved buses in anticipating the seasonal increase in the number of vehicles taking toll roads.

"We didn't use the reserve buses at all, meaning that there were no public buses or other public vehicles which had serious problems on the toll roads," he noted.

The Jakarta-Cikampek highway, which serves as the main route to Central and East Java, was the big breadwinner for the company with Rp 4.8 billion in tolls, Jagorawi toll road was second with Rp 3.8 billion, the Cawang-Tomang-Cengkareng (intra-urban) highway third with Rp 3.1 billion and the Jakarta-Merak highway in fourth place with Rp 2.2 billion.

In anticipation of the increase of the seasonal travelers, Saragih said the company worked with the police, who sent 300 policemen and deployed 24 police cars and one helicopter.

"The helicopter was only for emergencies, but it remained idle during Idul Fitri because all the accidents could be handled without it," Saragih said.

During the two-week period, the company recorded as many as 62 accidents in the Greater Jakarta area in which 18 people were killed and 72 injured.

The highest rate of accidents occurred at the Jakarta-Cikampek toll road with 25, followed by the Jagorawi highway with 17 cases, then the Jakarta-Merak highway with 10 accidents and the intra-urban highway with 10 cases.

Rita Rosita, another company spokesman, blamed human error for the accidents.

"The drivers might have been very tired but they still forced themselves to continue driving in order to reach their destinations as scheduled, or maybe they did not pay attention to the traffic signs," Rosita said.(11)