Speaking to the press Tuesday, head of the terminals division at the Surabaya Transportation Agency, Irvan Wahyu Hidayat, said the terminal was to be built in anticipation of traffic jams around the Suramadu area as a result of buses stopping anywhere they liked.

"We do not want to see public transportation vehicles dawdling around the Suramadu bridge and causing traffic jams," said Irvan, adding that, with a terminal, passengers could go there directly and to get on the desired buses.

The administration will atart building the terminal next week on a plot of some7,000 square meters in Tambak Wedi, on the Surabaya side of the bridge. The city administration has allocated funds of its budget for the project.

"Upon the *opening of* the new terminal, for reasons of efficiency, we will close down the old one in Kenjeran Lama," he said.

He added that the new terminal would operate as a transit stop for intercity buses serving routes connecting various cities in the province. That way, intercity buses would not need to go into the provincial capital to service their routes, as previously.

As well as the terminal, Irvan said, the administration was considering opening a trans-Suramadu route, a new route to operate over the bridge, also to anticipate traffic jams around the bridge.

"We are now looking at the most suitable types of vehicle for the trans-Suramadu route."

Suramadu bridge project leader Achmad Ghofar Ismail, who is also head of the Transportation Ministry's National Road Executing Agency V, said that managing the traffic around the bridge was urgent in order to make sure that it would last for 100 years.

He, therefore, reminded the bridge operator PT Jasa Marga to strictly impose traffic regulations along the bridge, especially with regard to heavily loaded trucks weighting more than 10 tons.

"A traffic jam of more than 10 meters long on the 434-meter central span will endanger the bridge. Which is why the operator's commitment *to impose tight traffic regulations* is very important," Ismail said.

Chairman of the Association of Land Transportation Owners' (Organda) Surabaya chapter, Wastomi Suhari, welcomed the plan, saying that the Tambak Wedi terminal will make it easier for both taxi and bus drivers to get passengers. "They don't need to find ones outside the terminal," he said.

He called on bus crews to abide by regulations by not picking up or dropping off passengers outside the terminal once it was in operation.

In a similar attempt to help keep public order in the Suramadu bridge area, head of the Bangkalan Public Order Officer Unit (Satpol PP) in Madura, Abdul Hamed, said his office would register street vendors operating along the access road to the bridge.

"We have registered some 510 street vendors so far," Abdul told The Jakarta Post by phone Tuesday, adding that that number could increase.

Abdul said, in its bid to create public order and maintain cleanliness around the bridge, his office had been educating the vendors not to litter and not to operate on the access road.

"We have established a coordination post for the street vendors under the flyover in Baengas subdistrict, Labang district, Bangkalan regency, Madura.

Chairman of the association of Bangkalan street vendors, Jimhur Saros, welcomed the plan. "What the government and the street vendors need to do is just sit down and discuss a policy that will benefit both parties," he said.

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