Vehicle volume increases, Polri temporarily closes MBZ toll road

Jakarta (ANTARA) - The National Police Traffic Corps (Korlantas Polri) temporarily closed the Mohamed Bin Zayed or MBZ toll road section on Thursday afternoon due to an increase in vehicle volume that caused heavy traffic flow density.

“This year is a bit different because we had to close MBZ temporarily earlier. We had already implemented the national one-way system, but the peak flow was still high,” said the Head of the National Police Traffic Corps (Kakorlantas), Inspector General of Police Agus Suryonugroho, at the Command Centre Post KM 29 of the Cikampek Toll Road, West Java, on Thursday.

He stated that, based on data, the total vehicle volume up to Thursday morning reached 270,000 vehicles.

That number, he said, increased compared to the number of vehicles on Tuesday (17/3), which was 221,000.

Therefore, various traffic engineering measures were applied, including the temporary closure of the MBZ toll road. Holidaymakers had to use the Jakarta-Cikampek toll road below it.

After being closed for about 1.5 hours, he said that the MBZ toll road can now be used again.

“We closed MBZ for almost 1.5 hours earlier. Because the contraflow measures have been completed, we have of course reopened it, and alhamdulillah, it is now smooth,” he said.

Previously, PT Jasamarga Jalanlayang Cikampek (JJC) stated that 63,275 vehicles were observed leaving Jakarta towards Cikampek via the MBZ Toll Road on Tuesday (17/3).

Based on traffic data, the volume of vehicles leaving Jakarta increased by up to 200.54 percent compared to normal daily traffic conditions, which is 21,054 vehicles.